Blindsided
by twice the trouble
Summary: Unlike the original, Orochimaru finds Naruto to be too much of a nuisance to be ignored but too intriguing to just kill. Now Naruto is forced to cope without the one thing everyone takes for granted the most. His sight.
1. Chapter 1

Hey everyone. Just thought some of you would enjoy this story. To anyone reading anything else of mine, don't fear, this won't get in the way of any of the ones I'm currently working on. I've already have almost 50,000 words written of this which should keep you all busy for a while. I will also say that this is not to be taken completely seriously. I'm well aware that most of what will happen is highly improbable but this is more for humor than for reality, even with the serious topic.

Hope you enjoy,

Trouble 1

DISCLAMER: I do not own Naruto. I was never able to get enough ramen for the trap to work.  
~~~~~~~~

"Are you alright? Scaredy cat," I taunted.

My eyes felt sharper as I held back an extremely large snake from eating Sauske. Something inside me loved the way things stood, I was the one protecting my team while Sauske was scared stiff. Oh how the tides had changed over the last few months. There's no way anyone could call me the Dead Last now that I just saved the pretty boy's ass.

Unfortunately, the second I thought this I forgot all about the gift wrapped freak on its head. She, or he (after meeting Haku I learned never to assume someone's gender based on facial features and hair length) grabbed me with his…her…ITS tongue before I could react. As I was being pulled away, towards the snake-obsessed weirdo, I was stuck between being startled at my current predicament, mad at letting myself be PUT in this current predicament, and grossed out that the cause of my current predicament was holding me with its TONGUE!

"LET ME GO YOU UNI-SEXED PEDOPHILE!"

The person in question looked at me questioningly, as if to ask 'what the hell is that about?' but then it just shook its head and spoke.

"The nine tailed brat is still alive, I see. With quite the tongue on him as well."

"Bet you like that!"

Again I was ignored, though I did get the pleasure of seeing an angry tick appear on the its head.

"Oddly enough, you and your byjuu are coexisting quite well. I'm going to have to change that." The it raised a hand, each finger glowing with a different kanji.

"FIVE PRONGED SEAL!" it shouted as the glowing fingers were forced into my seal.

An intense pain coursed throughout my body, making me unaware of anything other than it. I could have sworn that I heard someone shout at Sauske while the other one screamed. When I thought back on it, I was probably the one screaming, but why anyone was calling out for Sauske when it was ME that was getting hurt I would never know.

Everything became fuzzy after that, like I was losing consciousness. I was vaguely aware of being thrown into a tree then dangling there from my jacket. I felt that if I did let myself get knocked out, something bad would happen. So I struggled to claw my way back to the real world, using nothing but my strong force of will to do so. Luckily I have a lot of that.

Once I was back, I opened my eyes to find myself dangling on a tree, nothing holding me there except a kunai through my coat. I could hear fighting nearby, probably that it person and one of my teammates. On second thought, probably not. Well, whoever the It was fighting, I figured I could get down without them noticing, but only if I was quick about it.

Though I was still in pain, I reached up and pulled out the kunai. After I began to fall, I focused chakra into my feet so that I would stick to the tree but something wasn't right. My chakra didn't work like it should, this was made apparent by my feet slide down the bark like I wasn't even doing anything.

Lucky for me there was a branch just a few feet down that I could land on. Once I did, my legs wobbled, forcing me to grab the tree in order to keep from falling again. After I was able to stand on my own, I looked up to see how the fight was progressing. To my surprise, I saw Sauske was the Its opponent and though I could tell that the bow wearing non-gender was holding back, Sauske was still doing pretty well against it.

He was able to surprise the It with a couple kunais, a shudikin, and some ninja wire. Something I knew I'd have never thought of. Then the teme set the string on fire, burning Its face off. No really, its face was peeling off like an orange peel, or a sticker off a wet bill board. It then said something about wanting Sauske, and my two teammates froze…AGAIN!

They didn't even move as It stretched Its neck out, its snake-like fangs gunning towards Sauske's neck. Without thinking, I threw myself up as far as I could, grabbing Its now extremely long neck and pulling it off course. When It sunk its teeth into bark instead of my duck-butted teammate, it wasn't very happy. I quickly found myself yanked back towards the snake person again, and grabbed by my jacket collar before I could let go.

"How are you still conscious?" It looked at me like one studies a science experiment. "I tightened your seal so you can't access the fox's power, so how are you able to keep fighting?"

"I don't need that stupid furball's power to fight you, ya creepy pedophile!" I yelled back.

I tried to hit him or kick it in some way, but it kept me too far away for that.

"And why do you keep calling me a pedophile?"

"Because you look at Sauske like hungry kids look at an ice cream cone, you clearly said you 'want him', and you just tried to give him a hickey. So that makes you some creepy old pedophile… or Ino in disguise."  
-

Somewhere in the forest, another blond sneezed, scaring away their dinner.

"How troublesome," her teammate said before falling back asleep.  
-

"I'm not a 'creepy old pedophile' nor a fan girl," it said crossly.

"Umm…if you're not a guy or a girl, does that mean you don't have a gender?"

"If you must know, I'm male, but NOT a pedophile."

"You look like a chick," I said while reaching for a kunai.

But before my fingers could even brush the pouch, the girly man slammed me into the branch of the tree we were standing on.

"Cleaver boy, trying to distract your opponent while planning a counter strike," he said, sounding amused. "I must say, you are quite intriguing yourself, but you keep getting in the way. It would be easier just to kill you so I'd know for sure you wouldn't ruin my plans; but then I wouldn't get a chance to study you more."

Personally I didn't like either of the choices. The man was starting to give off the creepy doctor vibe, and I didn't like doctors. I went to voice my opinion but was slammed into the tree again, causing my vision to swim.

"But I have plenty of time to come up with a solution," I heard the snake-man say, his voice sounding as if it was under water.

I was starting to lose consciousness again, but this time there was no fighting it. The last thing I saw was the mad man's neck extended again and the sound of Sauske screaming in pain before all went black.  
-

!FEW HOURS LATER!

After giving Sauske his "present" and that so-called "fight" with Anko, Orochimaru was in a pretty good mood. He was still floating around the Forest of Death, more for the fun of it than anything else. Though he was enjoying his leisurely walk, he did have something he had to do. Soon after fighting his precious student, he had come up with a way to solve his problem with the blond brat. It was an ingenious idea, yet so painfully simple he should have thought of it before hand. But he had it now, which attributed it to his good mood.

It was nearly dark when he ran into the person he was looking for. He dropped down in front of the group, startling only the two teammates.

"Orochimaru-sama, did everything go well?" the unsurprised one asked respectfully.

"Yes, though I did run into a bit of a problem. A problem I was hoping you could rectify, Kabuto."

"Whatever it is, Orochimaru-sama, I'm sure I can handle it." The silver haired man grinned as he pushed his glasses up, making them flash.  
-

!FEW DAYS LATER!

We were on the fourth day in the forest and were running low on time. Somewhere along the way we had picked up the weird guy with the ninfo cards. He had said something about losing his teammates in the forest and wanting to stick with us till he found them.

Truthfully, I wasn't listening very much; I was still trying to figure out when Sakura found time to get a haircut in the middle of the forest. It was cute, but I kinda liked the long hair better, not to mention after that whole snake-man ordeal I was kinda rethinking my whole crush on her. She didn't try to do anything other than scream our names…well, scream Sauske's name. Apparently I'm chopped liver; not chopped ramen, or chopped fishcakes, or even chopped veggies!

Anyways, while we were traveling with the silver haired spectacles man, we had ran into a random team and were able to snitch the scroll we needed when they weren't looking, actually after they were knocked out but same thing. We were on our way to the tower in the center when we noticed that it was starting to get dark.

Considering we had the whole day tomorrow to get there, we decided that it would be best to set up camp so when we arrived there tomorrow, so we'd be well rested.

Spectacles offered to take first watch. Though my teammates were a bit apprehensive, they decided that it was probably best. After all, he had more experience in the field than all three of us put together. Not to mention, first was most likely going to be the longest and we were still feeling the effects of the attack a few days ago so we all grudgingly went to sleep. Well, I went to sleep almost immediately, not nearly as distrustful as I should have been.  
-

!LAST WATCH!

"Naruto, wake up. It's your watch," I heard Sakura say as she nudged me with her foot. I simply rolled over.

"Five more minutes."

"Get up!" she hissed, kicking me off my bed roll.

"Wha?"

My eyes shot open to try and figure out what was happening but the forest was so dark that I couldn't see anything,

"It's your watch." I could hear her footsteps move away as she made her way back to her bed roll. "I'm going to sleep so you better stay awake or you'll regret it."

"Alright, I'm up," I said, finally sitting up close to my bed roll.

I figured, since it was so dark it would probably be safer to stay where I was. I didn't want to trip over anyone and wake them up. That would be bad, especially if it's Sakura, she'd beat the crap out of me. So I sat there waiting for the sun to rise.

It felt like several hours went by without the sun even starting to peak over the horizon; I was sure the sky should have gotten lighter by now but it wasn't. It was, apparently, going to be one of those days when time just drags on almost as if it's stopped.

It was a while later, that I heard some ones bed roll rustle. Thinking they were just going to turn over and go back to sleep, I was surprised to hear Sauske "hm" in disbelief.

"Dobe, you were supposed to wake us up at sunrise," he said, his voice sounding a tad annoyed.

"The sun's taking its own sweet time rising."

"It's already up."

"Impossible!"

"It's already ten o'clock." I glanced around, starting to get worried about not seeing anything. "Sakura, we have to go. The dobe decided to ignore the sun."

"What? Baka! Are you blind or something?!"

I heard them packing and yelling at me some more but I wasn't listening very well. The whole blind comment kept repeating itself in my mind.

I bolted to my feet, desperately looking around, searching for anything to prove myself wrong. I stumbled away, tripping over my sleeping bag, ignoring my teammates as they called my name, confused. There had to be something, even if it was just a small smidge of sunlight. But before I even found it, I ran into something hard head first, knocking myself out cold. The last thought that crossed my mind was I really couldn't see.


	2. Chapter 2

Hey everyone, thanks for the reviews. I apologize for spelling Sasuke's name wrong. I usually don't write about him so I've never had a complaint before. I'll fix the first chapter soon. Anyways, here's the new chapter.

Hope you enjoy,

Trouble 1  
~~~~~~~~

! ! ! !A FEW HOURS LATER! ! ! !

After several hours of hiking through the forest while taking turns carrying their unconscious teammate, they finally reached the tower. Kabuto found his team and took off with them while they lugged Naruto through the door. Once inside they dropped him to the ground, simultaneously waking him up in the process.  
\- - - -

"Get up dobe. We're here," I heard as my head popped up from the floor.

For a moment, I thought my visual situation was just a dream, but as soon as I opened my eyes I knew that wasn't the case. Now that I thought about it, I could feel the heat from the light but everything still looked black.

"Once this is over, you have a lot of explaining to do," Sakura stated angrily from my right. "I don't know why you freaked out this morning, and frankly I don't care. But after carrying you for several hours we deserve at least a bit of an explanation. You got that baka?"

I snapped my head to the right, pretending to look at her and nodded. For some reason, I just didn't want them to know yet. Everyone already thought of me as the dead last, I was afraid of what they would think if they knew I couldn't see.

"I'd want to hear it now but we have to figure out what the plaque means."

I nodded again, deciding it was wise not to get up. Considering I didn't know my surroundings, it was probably better to just sit there and pretend I knew what was going on.

"Get up." I heard the teme say, his voice off to my right as well.

"I'm fine where I am, thank you very much," I answered as I straightened myself up so I could sit there cross-legged.

"Naruto!" Sakura yelled, hitting me over the head. "Stop messing around and get up!"

"No." I crossed my arms stubbornly.

"Naruto…" she hissed.

"No. I'm sittin' right here till I darn well have to move and there's nothin' you can do about it!"

"Why," Sasuke asked, as monotone as ever.

I froze, not planning this far ahead. I never thought they would want to know why I was being so stubborn about this. I had to think fast and give a plausible answer before they jumped to the wrong conclusions, or the right one.

"Um…" I stalled as I aimed my eyes at the floor.

At least this way I wouldn't need to try and look at anything as I thought. But I was never the sharpest kunai in the pouch so I just couldn't think of anything, no matter how hard I thought on it.

"Just because."

"Naruto," Sakura threatened again, making the voice I use to think sounded so pretty, compare to nails on a chalkboard. "Answer him!"

"Why should I?"

"Because he's Sasuke!"

"Don't care!"

"He's your teammate! You have to answer!"

"I don't care if he's the hokage, I don't need to tell him nothin'!" I declared loudly before they all went silent.

After a few seconds, I heard footsteps come from the right; I tensed myself, wondering what the teme was going to do when I was suddenly yanked up by the front of my jacket. Unfortunately my feet couldn't get under me in time so I ended up dangling there, completely confused and surprised by the turn of events.

"Why."

Sasuke's voice was a lot closer than before. In fact I doubted he could be any closer if he tried, at least without reliving the last day of the academy and I really didn't want to do that.

"Because I don't like you."

"He meant why won't you get up, you baka!" Sakura shouted before I got hit again. I think it was Sakura, but they sounded so close that I wasn't sure.

"Answer or Sakura will hit you again."

I heard her crack her knuckles in anticipation, making me gulp. I never realized what a force the two of them could make against their only other teammate. But it was about now that I figured out how to solve my problems.

"Dizzy," I mumbled to them, hoping not to get hit.

"What was that?"

"I'm dizzy, alright! I didn't want to stand up and fall right over again."

"Dizzy?" Teme asked, most likely finding it a bit hard to believe.

"Yeah, dizzy. I was hit really hard."

"You mean _you _hit the _tree_ hard."

I had to practically bite my tongue off to keep from asking if it really was a tree. Somehow I didn't think that would have gone over too well. Instead, I decided it was best to move on to a different subject.

"Yeah whatever. I thought we were going to save the twenty questions till after the plaque thingy."

"This was different," Sasuke said as he dropped me onto the floor for the second time in the past few minutes.

"Hey! What was that for you duck-butt em—OW! Sakura! Stop hitting me!"

"Stop insulting Sasuke and I will."

"It's not an insult if it's true."

"The plaque," Sasuke broke in as Sakura's fist past to the right of my head.

How the hell she had missed when I didn't even know to dodge, I don't know. I could hear Sakura's feet tap on the floor as she hopped up to focus on whatever plaque was in the room. Luckily for me, they read it out loud, even luckier that they didn't even expect me to know what it meant.

Somehow, the two of them had come to the conclusion that they were supposed to open the scrolls. I heard the seals break as the scrolls unraveled faster than my teammates could do so. There was some fizzing as Sasuke yelled to drop them. They clattered to the ground just before there was a quiet-ish pop, and then silence.

"Yo!" the unmistakable voice of Kakashi said happily.

"Kaka-sensei? What are you doing here?" I asked curiously.

"Well, Iruka was supposed to be the one to explain it all but he was unavoidably detained. Three of his students were caught trying to prank all the clan compounds during school hours."

"Really? Cool! It was Konohamaru's group wasn't it!"

"Yes, the infamous goggle brigade strikes again."

"How far did they get?"

"Let's see, they had set alarms clocks in the Nara compound that are going off every five minutes and were caught trying to sneak flash bombs into the Hyuuga compound. They were also in possession of several suspicious items including bug spray, dog whistles, the makings for rope foot traps, and several bags of chips that were thought to be used as the bait.

"And on a completely unrelated topic, Sasuke I think you're going to have to hire a decorator. Someone snuck into your building while you've been gone and painted your apartment pink."

"Why would someone do that?" Sakura demanded loudly in order to be heard over my laughter.

"Who knows?" Kakashi announced happily.

He waited patiently till I sat up again and stopped laughing before he continued onto the topic at hand.

"Anyways, I'm here in his place to explain the meaning of the plaque."

I tuned out as he spoke, explaining something that I wouldn't understand anyways. Instead I opted to think on what I was supposed to do about my new bind status. I thought about telling someone, like sensei or Hokage-jiji, but as I thought about it, they probably would want me to quit being a ninja. After all, I've never heard of a blind ninja.

I wanted to be a ninja, had to be in order to become hokage. Plus if I wasn't a ninja anymore then the villagers would start up their crap again.

I pushed the thought away, deciding that I was going to keep the whole thing a secret. It was the only way to achieve my goals after all. Didn't quite know how yet but I'd figure it out.

"Naruto!? Are you even listening?!" I was snapped out of my thoughts by Sakura's Banshee-like voice right in my ear, making me wince.

"What the hell Sakura? Are you TRYING to make me deaf?"

I couldn't help but be angry at her, I mean I was pretty much relying on my hearing to know what was going on around me. With that being said, I guess it was starting to get progressively sharper the more I focused on it. So that loud, high pitched voice in my ear was starting to get painful.

"You're not even listening. Why do you care?" she shot back, I was about to respond when sensei spoke up.

"Now now you two, stop fighting." He sounded amused, and maybe a bit suspicious. "Naruto, why weren't you listening to the explanation?"

"Umm…because it's kinda confusing."

"Alright then, I'll explain it in simpler terms for you. As a chunnin, you must work on what you are weak in. For instance, if you are strong in tijutsu and ninjutsu, and weak in strategy, then you must work on your thought process to fix it. And visa versa. Do you understand now?"

"Yeah, thanks Kaka-sensei!" I gave him one of my goofy grins from the floor. Unfortunately I didn't see how he reacted but, he was probably eye smiling back.

"Now, would anyone care to explain why Naruto's sitting on the floor?"

I tensed slightly at this, unsure of what to say. Luckily the more talkative of my teammates was there to unwittingly cover for me.

"The baka here lost it this morning and ran into a tree. We had to carry him back here after he knocked himself unconscious and now that he's awake, he's dizzy."

"Is that so?"

"Yeah, I'm an idiot," I agreed, attempting to look at my sensei. "But I think it might have been a genjutsu some other team put on me."

"And why's that?"

"Well, I was the only one on watch, so it kinda makes sense that they wanted our scroll. So I guess they decided that they should steal it while you were sleeping and I was distracted."

"Then why didn't they?" Sakura asked, suspiciously.

"How am I supposed to know? I'm not them." I was feeling quite proud of myself for coming up with such a good story in such a short amount of time.

"I guess it makes sense, after all whoever was still out there would be pretty desperate to get a scroll. Maybe they only saw the one scroll they already had so they left, thinking it was the only one we had."

"Sounds plausible," Sasuke said.

"Alright! You three have an hour before you must meet in the testing room." Kakashi's tone was quite chipper. "I suggest you pick up some food from the cafeteria."

"Food! REAL food!" I throw my arms into the air with such force that I knocked myself over.

"Kaka-sensei? Where is the cafeteria?" Sakura sounded almost as excited as me.

"Does it have ramen?"

"Right through the door over there." Kakashi must have been pointing towards the door. "And yes, it has ramen."

"Yes!" I exclaimed happily. It was only a moment after that that I realized, I had no idea where the door was.

"Thanks sensei!" Sakura said, sounding a lot cheerier than I was feeling right now.

I heard two sets of footsteps walking away from me somewhere off to my right. I blinked as an idea struck me. They knew where the door was. They were heading towards it right now. I could hear which way they were going. Therefore, I knew which way the door was. Oh and if I waited long enough I could probably figure out how far away it was too. I sat there, feeling proud of myself for a moment before I realized the only reason I came up with that was because there was ramen on the line. Of course I had no real problem with this so I didn't lose my happy attitude.

"Hey Sasuke-kun, so you want to-"

"No."

"But I didn't even-"

"No."

"You're not even listen-"

"No."

"But Sasuke-kun-"

"No."

I listened to my teammates voices fade as they moved away towards my goal. Sakura was just starting to say something else when the creaking of the door told me it was somewhere to my right and only about twenty paces. With this in mind, I went to get up after the door clicked shut.

"Naruto."

I jumped at my name being called, almost forgetting Kakashi was even there.

"What?"

I was starting to get irritated with the man. There was ramen on the other side of that door and he was keeping me from it. I'm pretty sure I had every right to be snippy with him.

"Mind if I ask you something?"

"You just did, but sure."

"Are you blind?"


	3. Chapter 3

Hey everyone, thanks for the reviews, they're very helpful. To plums review, I'll admit that I didn't quite get what you were saying at first, but when I re-read that chapter, I noticed what you pointed out. I think that was an editing problem on my part. I was trying to make him more accurate during my changes so he could grow into the character I want him to but apparently I didn't do so correctly. I'll make sure to do what I can to change that in later edits.

Anyways, here's the new chapter, it needs work I think but I still want to know what you think of it.

Hope you enjoy,

T1  
~~~~~~~~

"Huh?" I asked, completely stunned at his question. I thought I was doing pretty good keeping it a secret but somehow he knew.

"Let me rephrase that, at what point, in between now and when I last saw you five days ago, did you lose your sight?"

"Uh, sensei? Are you feeling well? I'm not blind. My vision is 20/20, like always."

"You're eyes haven't been tracking correctly and whenever a conversation starts you look at the floor."

"So? Maybe the floor looks better."

"Naruto," Kakashi said, his tone scolding.

"I'm not blind, Kaka-sensei! Come on! Would a blind person know where the door is? It's right over there." I pointed towards where I knew the door to be, hoping that would be enough to convince him.

"Maa maa, I guess you're right. How silly of me," Kakashi said. I was mentally patting myself on the back when he spoke again. "But I'm still a bit worried about you. So, how about this, if you answer my last question correctly, I'll let the whole thing drop, ok?"

"Yeah, sure."

"How many fingers am I holding up?" I froze at the question. "Come on, if you can see as well as you say, this should be easy for you."

"Uh, two?"

"Are you sure?"

"Of course I am."

"Too bad, it was four."

"No it wasn't!"

"Yes it was, see? 1, 2, 3, 4." He matched each number with a tap on my nose using the different fingers.

"Umm, you must have switched them!"

"If I did, wouldn't you have seen it?" His voice was closer now, like he was kneeling in front of me. I sighed, knowing I was beaten in the battle of wits.

"Now, care to answer my questions truthfully?"

"Yeah, I guess. But a couple things first." he made a sound that I interpreted as continue. "How did you know?"

"Other than your eyes not tracking?" I nodded. "I said there was ramen and you didn't even move to get up. Instead you waited for your teammates to move first so the sound would tell you where it was. Pretty smart move, by the way."

"Of course it was, ramen was on the line!" I smiled happily. "Speaking of which, let's eat!"

"You're supposed to be telling me what happened."

"I can do that as I eat, can't I?" I trying to use my puppy eyes on him, but was unsure how well I was doing.

"Well, I guess…"

Before he could finish I was on my feet and to the door, trying to find the doorknob. When I finally found it, I yanked the door open, only to practically faint at all the noise that assaulted my ears. It was like at the academy only ten times worse. Everyone must have been in there because my two teammates couldn't be make this much noise by themselves.

I didn't even notice that my legs gave out or that I was now lying in the doorway with my hands over my ears. I did, however, notice that the volume dropped a bit, but not enough to make it any better.

"Sensei, is he alright?" Sakura ask over the noise.

"Yeah, he's fine," Kakashi voice came from somewhere behind me. "He's still a bit unstable from that genjutsu I'd imagine. Plus, he just caught his first whiff of ramen in five days."

I heard several "oh's" and a few chuckles before they continued their conversations, though a bit quieter to my relief.

"Volume a bit much for you?" I heard my sensei whisper right next to me. He was most likely kneeling next to me in order to keep quiet.

"It surprised me."

"I'd imagine so. Anyways this place is packed so I'm just going to carry you to a secluded little table so we can chat."

I tried to protest but before I could, I was already on his back being carted off to who knows where.

"Don't worry, they won't think anything of it after the explanation I gave."

"Your explanation sucked."

"But it was believable," he said with an audible smirk.

"…I hate you."

"Well, that's nice."

It was about now that he stopped, presumably at a table, then slowly set me down till I was sitting on a hard wooden chair. Then after a second I heard a chair scratch the floor in front of me before he continued.

"If that's the way you feel, I might not want to go get you any ramen."

"I didn't mean it! It was a total lie! You're my favorite sensei EVER!"

"Am I now?"

"Yeah! Definitely!" I said desperately. "Soo…do I get my ramen now?"

"I suppose," he said with a chuckle. "I'm only grabbing two though."

"But-"

"If I get any more you won't have time to tell me everything." His chair scrapped the floor again before I heard his footsteps walked past me. "Be right back."

I lost track of him soon after that due to the chatter in the cafeteria. I was starting to get used to all the noise surrounding me, unfortunately now I couldn't figure out what was happening around me. I wasn't able to separate the important stuff from the background noise. So it wasn't too much of a surprise when my sensei was able to startle me.

"Here you go." He loudly placed something in front of me, making me jump. After the initial surprise wore off, I realize he was talking about the ramen and sat up straighter. "Chopsticks are right in front of you."

"Thanks Kaka-sensei!"

I quickly found the chopsticks before breaking them open and started digging into the first bowl. It wasn't very hard to do, even though I couldn't see the bowl, I've eaten ramen so often I really didn't need to.

"Now Naruto, when did…this happen?"

"Don't know," I answered, my mouth half full. I swallowed before continuing. "When I went to sleep last night, my sight perfect. I woke up and it was gone. I didn't know till Sasuke and Sakura yelled at me for not waking them up that something was wrong. So then I freaked and knocked myself out with a tree. Apparently my teammates carried me over here."

"Was there anything strange that happened yesterday, like a cloud of smoke that only hit you or something like that?"

"No, all we did was knock out that other team while they were eating and stole their scroll. Then we traveled for a bit, made camp and ate some gross fish the Teme caught before falling asleep."

"Any suspicious people that you guys came across?"

"Nope, we did let this guy, Kabuto I think, travel with us while he looked for his team but he's pretty harmless, for a ninja."

Kakashi didn't respond so I continued eating my food, figuring he was lost in thought. I had finished off the first and was halfway through the second before a thought struck me.

"Umm, sensei?" I asked quietly. He made a noise to tell me he's listening. "Do…do you think that this is, permanent?"

There was silence for a while before he said anything.

"I don't know. It's possible but you'd have to be examined."

"No."

There was quite for a moment before he answered.

"Why not?"

"If I'm examined then they'd tell the hokage and he'd have to take away my ninja status."

"Naruto, in this condition it's too dangerous for you to be a ninja."

"It'd be even worse if I wasn't," I said before I realized I had done so. I could almost feel the curious look Kakashi had aimed at me.

"What do you mean?" he asked, I looked down out of habit. I didn't say anything, knowing that I had said too much already. "Naruto, answer me please."

"You know the civilian laws about ninjas, right?" I asked with a sigh.

"That if you assault a shinobi of the leaf or one from an allied village without provocation, you will be charged with treason, which is punishable by death. Yes I know of it."

"Well, that's the only thing keeping me safe right now. If I was a citizen again, there would nothing stopping them. Less consequences I guess."

"But why would that worry you?"

"They see me as the demon. Do you think, for one second, that if they had a chance to kill me, without being executed themselves, they wouldn't?"

"Not all of them."

"Don't need all of them; just a couple strong ones, a few bottles of saki, and maybe some blunt weapons. After all, it wouldn't be too hard to catch a blind kid." I stayed quiet in order not to be overheard. "And don't try to tell me they wouldn't because before I was in the academy they'd do so. The only reason they stopped was because you're not considered a citizen when you're training."

"I see," he said after a bit.

"You won't tell, will you?" I raised my head to look towards him.

"I don't believe it's necessary to put you at risk like that."

"You mean?" I perked up at this, hoping he was saying what I thought he was.

"Yes, I'll keep your secret." It was all I could do to keep myself from shouting in excitement. "But, only if you listen to my direct orders. For instance, if I say something is too dangerous for you, you won't go charging in otherwise. Is that understood?"

"Hai!"

"That and I want you to let a medical nin examine you after we're done here."

"But-"

"She's a friend of mine that lives outside the village so she doesn't report back to the hokage."

"But what if she does anyways?"

"Don't worry, she's trustworthy. I've known her for longer than you've been alive. If I ask her to keep it a secret, she will."

"Well, if you can trust her, I guess I can too."

"Good. Now finish up your ramen and we'll get going. We're supposed to be there in twenty minutes after all."

"Yes sir!" I said with a mock salute as Kakashi chuckled at me. "But only if you get me more ramen."

"If I get you anymore ramen, we could be late for the meeting."

"And you care?"

"Not really, be right back."


	4. Chapter 4

Hey everyone, thanks for all the reviews even though it's only been a few days. To thor94, just keep reading. I have a no spoiler policy :).

Anyways, here's the next chapter, sort of on time (the last one was a bit late). Oh, and I'm borrowing a couple jokes for this chapter from the Naruto Abridged series, only because their randomizing computer makes things a lot more interesting. Just a small disclaimer.

Hope you enjoy,

Trouble 1  
~~~~~~~~

"YOU'RE LATE!" Sakura yelled from behind me somewhere as Kakashi and I shunshined into the meeting place.

I stiffened a wince as I tried to figure out why she was shouting so much, it was only ten minutes.

"Well, you see, there was this blind man that got lost so me and Kaka-sensei had to make sure he got to where he was going safely."

"We're in the middle of the forest," Shikamaru pointed out, sounding bored.

"Um, he was very lost?"

"How troublesome," he stated, barely heard underneath Sakura's "LIAR!" If she only knew how close to the truth it was.

"Kakashi, I'd prefer if you saved the corrupting of your student until after the exams." The hokage sounded almost exasperated as he spoke. "At least then he'd have a fair chance of showing up on time."

"I'll try, hokage-sama, but it's hard to convince a student to not mimic their role model," Kakashi said sagely. I heard the other man sigh. "I mean, look at Gai and Lee."

The mentioned duo started shouting each other's names as they prepared their sunset genjutsu of death, I mean youth. At the sound of the traumatized/disgusted populous, I was suddenly a bit glad I couldn't see it.

"Moving on. Naruto, if you could join the others I'll get started." I panicked for a moment, trying to come up with a good excuse.

"I'd rather not."

"And why is that?"

"Well, they're kinda mad at me so if I go over there, they could hurt me." There was silence after that, probably from confusion. So Kakashi decided to explain.

"They had to carry him back because he knocked himself out with a tree."

"A tree?!" Ino exclaimed. "How the hell do you knock yourself out with a TREE?!"

"It's a talent." I pretended to flip my imaginary long hair over my shoulder. "And I'm not sharing!"

"Why would anyone want to-" Ino was about to continue when the Hokage cut her off.

"Ok, that's enough. If you feel more comfortable where you are then you may stay. It doesn't matter much anyways."

"Thanks jiji!" I heard a few people make disapproving sounds at that, but I didn't really care.

"Now, before we get started, let me just say that from here on out, you will not be working in teams. So when I say you have the option to drop out, your personal choice will not affect your teammates.

"But before we get to that, I must announce that due to the number of you that passed the second test, we are going to have to run a preliminary test as soon as I'm done. So if any of you feel as if you are not up to a one-on-one fight then please withdraw from the exam."

Kakashi nudged me as two of the other contestants dropped out. The first guy kinda sounded like the spectacles man we ran into. The second was announced to be some kid from Taki, who apparently got his leg broken out in the forest. The whole time, that poor kid's teammates were shouting at him to "come back and face it like a man", or at least the feminine sounding one was. She probably wasn't that stable of an individual, especially if she thinks her teammate can fight on a pair of crutches.

"You should drop too," Kakashi whispered, snapping me back to the present. "You're not ready for this yet."

"I can do it."

"Naruto-"

"I can do it sensei." There was a disapproving silence before I spoke up again. "At least let me see who my opponent is."

He thought it through for a few seconds.

"Alright, but if I say it's too difficult then you forfeit. Ok?"

"I guess, but that's not going to be a problem. I can handle anyone they throw at me, datteboyo!"

I could hear him chuckle as a set of double doors closed with a thud.

"Is there anyone else that wishes to leave?" the hokage asked, when no one spoke up, he continued, going into this long spiel about war, or war substitute or something like that. Again, I wasn't really listening, opting to try and figure out how to keep my eyes a secret.

After all, Kakashi said earlier (during my fifth bowl of ramen to be exact), that only a blind man, or ANOTHER blind man, would be unable to see that my eyes weren't tracking. I mean, I can't keep my eyes shut forever, it would eventually get me into trouble, especially considering I doubt my opponent would like it.

As I thought this, I was vaguely aware of the hokage's speech being interrupted by Gai shouting something about saving some poor kids "Flames of Youth" before his "eternal rival" could do anymore damage. It wasn't until a hand landed on my shoulder that I was shocked out of my thoughts.

"No need to worry, I shall make sure your Flames of Youth stay bright! And if I fail, I'll-"

"Did you say something?" I asked, unknowingly parroting my sensei's line.

"NO! IT'S TOO LATE! HIS COOL, HIP ATTITUDE HAS ALREADY SPREAD!"

Kakashi snickered as the hokage then decided that this would be a good time to gain back control.

"…And now, on with the preliminaries," he announced, getting everyone's attention again. "Each match will be chosen randomly by our randomizing computer. As long as it doesn't glitch again."

He ended up whispering the last part to himself, making me wonder what he meant by that, and why Kakashi was chuckling. After it was announced that Sasuke and this other dude I didn't know were up first, Kakashi shunshined the pair of us somewhere else.

"We're on the balcony above the arena." I heard everyone else climbing up the stairs that we essentially skipped.

"Ok. Hey, why does that computer thingy glitch? If it's such a great piece of technology, they shouldn't have a problem with it, right?" He started chuckling again, making me even more curious. "And why do you find it so funny?"

"Well, you see, it was created about fifteen, sixteen years ago by the fourth."

"The fourth hokage?"

"No, the fourth ramen stand owner." The sarcasm was practically dripping off his words. "Yes, the fourth hokage, back before he was hokage. He was a great seal master and that thing runs entirely on seals."

"So?"

"Well there were only three seal users in the village, one being the fourth, another was his sensei, while the last was a…close friend of his. Now, what you have to understand about this friend is that she was one hell of a prankster, as in you would be amateur in her eyes. A good amateur, but one none the less.

"Really? Why haven't I heard of her? Where is she now?"

"Unfortunately she died the same night as the forth." I looked towards the ground. I knew that was just a nice way of saying that it was in the Kyuubi attacked. "But not without leaving a few things to be remembered by."

"Like what?" I glanced back up towards him, curious once again.

"Well, for one, that computer." I gave him an odd look and he continued. "When the forth was making it, this friend decided to _help_ him. So one night he was out on a mission she snuck into his house and made a few adjustments. Now whenever it's used a few, unexpected pairing pop up. They never know when but every time it does, everyone that knows about her prank has to chuckle."

"So not everyone knows who did it?"

"Very few do."

"Then how do you know?"

"The forth was my sensei. I had to listen to him complain about it for months afterwards. Why are you gawking at me like that?"

"The Forth was your sensei?!"

"Didn't I say so before?"

"NO!"

"Maa maa, anyways I had to listen to him complain for a long time after that, especially considering neither he nor his sensei, Jiraya, could fix it."

"Why not?"

"She was from a very elite clan that specialized in sealing," he told me.

I wanted to know more, all of this sounded so interesting. I was about to ask another question when I was interrupted.

"Here, we'll talk more on this later. Right now we should be supporting your teammate while he's fighting."

"He's fighting?"

"For the past two minutes."

"Oh well, it's not like I can watch," I said quietly. "Hey, won't people know if I'm not watching the fight?"

"Hmm, good question."

He sat there quietly for a moment before he spoke up again.

"Ah, here." I heard him rustling through a pack before he pulled something out. "Catch."

I held my hand out just in time to catch whatever he threw. After further examination I figured out it was a book.

"If you pretend to read it, people will think you're distracted."

"It's not that pervy book, is it?"

"If I gave you one of those, we'd both get killed, whether you could read it or not," he said, sounding suspiciously seriously.

"So, what is it?"

"It's from the same author as my Icha Icha books. It's his only non-perverted book entitled 'Tale of the Gutsy Ninja.' I'm sure you would have read it as well eventually, if this hadn't happened."

"Ok, as long as it's not going to get me hit."

"The book itself won't, but your inattention might." Before I could reply, there was a crash followed by a loud cheer for most of the female onlookers.

"Let me guess, Sasuke won," I deadpanned right before they announced that I was right.

"Good guess." I opened the book up to the first page, feeling so bored I wished I really could read it. "Now stay right there until I get back. I have to take care of something for Sasuke. And if you're called up before I get back, be smart. If it sounds like a challenge, then back out."

"I can take anyone!"

"Maybe you could before, promise me that if you come up against a strong opponent, back out."

"Alright, I promise."

"Now, no breaking your promise, after all if you do that you'd be breaking your nindo as well."

"I won't break my nindo! Datteboyo!"

"Just making sure."

Instead of giving him any verbal response, I stuck my tongue out at him before focusing back on the book. I could hear him chuckle again before he poofed away. After a moment, his voice could be heard speaking on the ground level.

After I heard the two of them were taken off the floor, they announced that Katsu, some guy from Taki, was versing Shino. Well, after they convinced Gai that the Flames of Youth was not a legitimate competitor so it would not be competing against the lesser known Fire Extinguisher of Fate.

I laughed, knowing Kakashi was right about this. Whoever was the mastermind behind this was a pranking genius! If I was still pranking I would definitely take this as a challenge. A trick this epic would be a great thing to aim for. But I had promised Jiji that I'd stop once I was a ninja, and I had. For the most part.

But just for fun, I started thinking of stuff I could have done, during Shino's match. unfortunately it was over so quickly that I had only come up with a couple. Apparently he won by sucking the chakra out of the guy till he passed out.

Across the room, I heard some chick laughing hysterically. She yelled something about wondering why his name didn't assure his victory like he said it would. It took me a bit to figure out what she meant, till I remembered that the boy was named Katsu, which meant "victory".

The matches went relatively quickly after that. Kankuro beat the human rubber band, Sakura and Ino decided to just knock each other out instead of actually doing anything. I breathed a sigh of relief at this because the pair of them kept screeching during every match. At least now my ears could get a bit of a rest for a few matches.

And if you're wondering how I knew all of this, for some reason everyone felt like commenting on the fights as they were happening. Not that I was complaining, I just thought it was weird.

Unfortunately the silence didn't last too long due to the fact that they woke up right after Tenten's humiliating defeat by Temari. It was equally unfortunate when Sakura came over to screech, sorry, I meant speak to me.

"Naruto! Why are you reading? You're supposed to be watching the matches!"

I winced at the shrillness of it once again. It was then that I felt a sudden urge to duck. No sooner did I do so, I feel a woosh go over my head.

"Hey! You're not supposed to DUCK!"

"I wouldn't need to if you didn't try to hit me."

I had to fight the urge to look up at her. Instead I continued to stare at the book, trying to look preoccupied with whatever story was in it.

"Where did you get the book anyways?"

"Kakashi." This time there was no warning before I got wacked upside the head for no reason.

"Naruto! How dare you read that smut!"

"It's not smut," I said as I rubbed my sore head. "Read the title."

I flashed the cover at her before making like I was reading it again, and then turned the page for good measure.

"Oh. And why are you reading a book when you never willingly TOUCHED one in your life?"

"Um, Kakashi said to. Something about freaking Gai out."

I wasn't sure what I'd do if she asked anything else. Just as she started to ask another question, I heard someone clear their throat.

"Yo, Sakura. I heard you had your match already. How was it?" sensei asked, effectively shutting her up.

"Well, it wasn't that bad-"

"Her vs. Ino. Both of them made this huge deal out of it only for it to end in a double knock out," I said simply getting a growl from her in the process.

"She should be proud of herself. After all, it was a tie."

"More like a double loss. To Ino. So probably not."

"Naruto-"

She was about to b-rate me about that when Shika was announced as the winner.

"'Bout time. Thought it would take forever."

"Well, he's a Nara. They use their mind instead of their fists so it tends to run a little on the long side," Kakashi answered.

"If you insist," I said with a shrug. "Alright! Who's next?"

"Well, it's not Clucky vs. the Log."

"What?" both of us asked.

"If the two of you stop fighting and focus on the task at hand, you would have noticed the quite humorous glitch on the randomizing computer screen. It clearly states that the next opponents are Clucky vs. The Log."

Sakura was silent as I almost busted a gut from laughing so hard. I struggled to get out the single questioning word.

"Why?"

"Apparently she and one of the Uchihas had an argument as academy students about which was stronger, a chicken or our ever present, substitution log. It eventually evolved into what everyone liked to call, Clucky vs. The Log."

"Which side did she take?"

"Clucky, of course."

"Do you think _any_ Uchiha would know about this argument?"

"Probably not. He wouldn't want it to be common knowledge among his clan."

"Would _Sasuke_ know about it?"

"Maybe. After all it was his father that started it."

I could feel the foxlike grin spreading across my face as I put my book down for a moment.

"CLUCKY WILL WIN!"

"Naruto, Sasuke is unconscious in a hospital room at the moment. This means he couldn't possibly hear you."

"Damn, and I wanted to start that up again." I brought my book up to look at it. "Is Jiji done with his hissy fit yet? I wanna know whose next."

"Naruto! The hokage doesn't have hissy fits, you baka!"

"If someone's cursing something out it's usually called a hissy fit, right? I didn't think it changed if it was the hokage doing the swearing."

"Hokage-sama would do no such thing!"

"I can hear him swearing from here!"

"He does look pretty upset," Kakashi backed me up. I heard Sakura take in a breath, getting ready to yell or something, when the hokage cleared his throat.

"Next match please." He sounded a bit self-conscious about his outburst.

I listened to the computer click as it no doubt thought through the possible selections. The clicking eventually slowed to a stop and the competitors were announced.

"Uzumaki Naruto vs. Inuzuka Kiba."

"Yes!" I accidentally throwing my book into the air due to my excitement. I'm pretty sure Kakashi caught it because I never heard it hit the floor. "About damn time!"

I went to jump over the rail in front of me when a hand dropped onto my shoulder, stopping me.

"Naruto, I don't think you're ready for this."

"Oh, come on sensei!"

"He's too strong for you."

"Like hell he is!"

"He is right now. You need to forfeit."

"No."

"Naruto-"

"No. I'm fighting Kiba and there's nothing you can do to stop me." There was a pause in the conversation before he continued.

"We'll see about that."


	5. Chapter 5

Hey everyone. Again thanks for all the reviews. I just checked to see how long I've been working on this and apparently I started it 2 1/2 years ago. So if anything doesn't seem to fit or my writing style changed...that's why. I've been babying this story for a while now. The only reason I'm not currently working on it is because 1. I am long overdue on a previous challenge my friend issued me (it turned out to be more work than I thought) and 2. I have to read up on the part I'm currently at. But no worries, I have 140 pages already written so you should all be set for a while. :)

Hope you enjoy,

Trouble 1  
~~~~~~~~

Kakashi looked at the boy, seeing the stubborn look in his eyes, making it undoubtablly clear that there was no talking him out of it. Instead he decided to bring his student to the hokage, knowing that if he convinced him that Naruto isn't well enough to fight, then he could pull the boy out himself. So he grabbed Naruto's arm and shunshined down to the platform below.

"Hokage-sama. Naruto's not fit to fight Kiba. He is still feeling the effects of the last test." He kept a strong grip on the boys arm as he struggled.

"Are you sure? What specifically are these ill effects?"

"I believe he's still suffering from a slight concussion from running into the tree. He's still very dizzy to the point he was having trouble standing only half an hour ago."

"Hmm, you don't say. But don't you think it's a bit late to be bringing this up?" The Cyclops became confused, shooting a questioning look at the still writhing boy before turning back to the hokage. "After all, he's already on the floor."

The man's lone eye got wide as he looked back at the floor to see a grinning Naruto. Then he looked at the boy he had, who had just stopped fighting long enough to acquire that same grin before poofing out of existence.

"Begin!" the proctor shouted as his student's smile widened. Kakashi looked at his student, unsure if the boy was up to this. As the two competitors taunted each other he just hoped Naruto knew what he was doing.

! ! ! !FEW MINUTES EARLIER! ! ! !

Naruto waited for Kakashi to poof away before coming out of my hiding spot behind Choji, who was conveniently walking by at the time.

"Thanks man."

"No problem," he said, munching on his ever present bag of chips.

I reached out to where I knew the railing was, finding it first try, then hopped over it. Unfortunately I had no idea how far down the floor was so when my feet hit it sooner than I thought, I ended up doing a face-plant into the tile floor.

"Don't tell me he knocked himself out again," I heard Kiba say as I lay on the ground for a moment, still stunned. "Does that mean I win?"

"I'm good," I called, climbing back to my feet.

"Damn."

I kept Kiba's location in mind as I hurried towards the sound of our proctor coughing.

"Are you afraid to face me, Kiba?" I asked once I turned to face him. I heard him start to say something but I interrupted him. "Who am I kidding, of course you are. Hey proctor, can we get this started?"

"Eager to get you butt whooped?"

"Yeah, right! I could defeat you blindfold. Datteboyo!"

"Begin!" the proctor shouted over our banter.

"Time to put your money where your mouth is," Kiba said as I heard his feet shift on the floor, probably into a tijutsu stance. So I did the same, not wanting to be taken by surprise.

"No thanks. I'd rather eat ramen."

It was about then that I heard the sound of something that could only be him jumping, probably at me. My theory was confirmed when a fist connected with my face.

'Note to self, when his feet leave the ground, move,' I thought as I got to my feet again.

"Is that all you got, dog breath?" I grinned like a madman just to throw him off. "Konohamaru hits harder than you."

"Ya know, I was going to be fair and let you think you had a fighting chance. But now I think I'm just going to finish you off right now."

"Good. I don't want your charity anyways."

"NINJA ART: BEAST MIMICRY!" Kiba shouted as his hands thudded to the ground, making me wonder what he was up to.

"Here I come," Kiba said, his voice sounding on the verge of a growl.

I'm guessing it was some sort of transformation because I could hear the slightly shocked crowd commenting on how bad I was going to lose. I was just about to yell at them when I heard his feet…and his hands, leave the ground. I was trying to decide whether to dodge or to see what he got when he rammed what had to be his shoulder into my gut, making my mind up for me.

I was then sent flying across the room before my reunion with the stone floor. As I struggled to get my bearing I could hear Kiba trying to talk the proctor into ending the match saying that I "wasn't getting up anytime soon." What really ticked me off though was that that dumb proctor was actually considering it.

So I climbed to my feet, ignoring Kiba's conversation, only listening enough to get a fix on his location. Then, before he could even turn his attention back on me, I tackled him, wanting to share the ground's hospitality with my opponent.

I used the momentum of the tackle to roll past him and onto my feet. I stayed crouched close to the ground, no doubt facing away from him, but it's not like it mattered.

"Don't underestimate me, asshole." I must have took him by surprise, if his silence had anything to say about it. "Come on, are you really that weak or you just going easy on me?"

He growled at me, most likely trying to glare as well.

"Akamaru! To me!"

I heard small, padded feet rushing to its master side. I stood up and turned to face him.

"Seriously? You're really bringing your puppy into this?" I gave him a disbelieving look to tick him off even more.

"This _puppy_ is that's going to be your downfall." His voice clearly telling me that I was succeeding. "Let's get him Akamaru!"

I heard them charge at me, their feet leaving the ground for a moment before they started running. Something hit the ground in front of me, before making a poof sound. Then the air began to smell strongly of smoke which kind of confused me. Well, until I figured out that it had to have been a smoke pellet in an attempt to obscure my vision. I almost laughed at the thought.

It was soon after this that something told me to duck, so just like earlier with Sakura, I listened to this gut feeling just in time to feel his swing pass right overhead. Not a second after I was told to move again, this time to the side. I did so right before a pair of teeth clamped together right where my arm used to be.

After dodging like this a couple times I figured out what was keeping me safe. It wasn't some sixth sense or anything, it was actually my other four senses that I normally never paid attention to in a fight. I was able to avoid his attacks so easily because, even though I couldn't see his throws coming, there were other indicators. A whisper of fabric as Kiba moved, the taste of smoke thickening or thinning as the air was disturbed, even, oddly enough, the smell of dog as Akamaru neared. It all told me exactly were the duo was, and exactly how to avoid them.

Soon after this revelation they stopped attacking, opting, instead, to stand in front of me panting. I couldn't hold back a laugh this time as the smoke soon faded from my senses.

"How?" Kiba asked over my laughter.

"How what?"

"How did you…avoid us?"

"I'm a ninja," I answered condescendingly, even though I had no clue where this was going.

"So?"

"Ninjas fight ninjas," I said, my mind trying desperately to come up with something fast enough to say it. "Ninjas are _supposed _to be invisible. So fighting with only your eyes is stupid. Don't you agree?"

When he didn't answer I did so for him.

"You should, after all you're always using your nose."

"How?"

"How do I know?" I smiled at his confusion. "A ninja's intuition."

"You guessed, didn't you."

"Uh, enough about that now, I believe it's my turn." I smirked evilly before crossing my index fingers. "SHADOW CLONE JUTSU!"

I could tell there was something ruining what little chakra control I had, because I could feel the drain in chakra even after the ten clones I made. Whatever that long-haired freak did to me the other day, it wasn't good and I should probably get that looked at as well. But now wasn't the time for this, I had to focus on the fight.

My clones grinned before charging as one towards the enemy. Of course, none of them could see either but it was strange, every time Kiba and Akamaru made one poof away, it made it easier to find the pair. I thought on it for a moment before deciding to use it now and figuring out later.

So I made more clones, spamming the field despite the extra chakra strain. I also made sure to have one hedged in the corner just in case. I was going to win this fight if it was the last thing in do. I need to prove it to sensei, and myself, that this handicap wouldn't hold me back.

I lashed out where I knew they were and came into contact with something fluffy. Unsure whether it was Akamaru or just Kiba's jacket I grabbed it. The dog yelped, causing me to smirk. I didn't particularly like hurting Kiba's ninkin but if it helped me win the match then there was really no other choice.

"Surrender, Kiba!" I yelled, holding the dog up by its paws. I thought they were his front paws but there was no real way of knowing.

"Or what? You'll hurt my dog?"

"Maybe."

"Akamaru can take care of himself!" His bag rustled like he was searching for something in it. "Akamaru! Catch!"

Something flew through the air, until the dog I was holding caught it in his jaws. The puppy started growling, his fur becoming spikier in my grasp. I lost my grip on him, dropping him to the floor. He darted to his master's side, right before I heard a poof of a transformation being performed.

"MAN-BEAST CLONE!"

From the gasp in the audience, something happened visually that shocked the peanut gallery. I pretended to be shocked like everyone else, even though I had no idea what was so surprising.

So just to be prepared, I created a bunch of clones just as a set of feet left the ground. I had them surround me like a shield as the pair of them ran my way. Something was off about their footsteps, but I couldn't place what it was.

It wasn't till my clones started disappearing and I started getting vague impressions of being punched by Kiba several times that I realized what was wrong. There were no paw-steps. It was two sets of Kiba sized footsteps.

I was surprised at this for a moment, which was just enough time for them to take out the rest of my clones and throw me into a wall. Through my shock, I could hear the cracking of cement behind me as my back exploded in pain. I had no idea how but he was now five times stronger than he was before.

"See? This match will be over before you can even say 'I give'." The dog boy sounded so confident in his own words that even I was on the threshold of believing him. "But just to make sure you aren't going to pop back up again…"

The boy went quiet, his feet shifting on the ground as I sat there, trying to get my body to start moving.

"FANG OVER FANG!" he shouted and I pretty much knew I was in trouble.

Even if I didn't know what that meant, I knew that if he had that much confidence in this technique, then it must be pretty powerful. It was only a couple seconds after this that I got nailed in the chest, causing several of my ribs to snap into pieces.

My breath was knocked out of me, and even as I fought to get it back, I found it oddly difficult to do so. My head was spinning and all sounds were dulled. I could barely hear Kiba talking to the proctor again.

But I wasn't giving up now, not after all that happened! I'd been through more today than I have in my whole life just to fight for my spot as chunin. There was no way that I was going to let some mutt take it! So before the proctor could call the match, I struggled to my feet even though I could barely breathe.

"Hey, what are you doing? Just give it a rest will ya. You've already been beaten and you know it!" I winced as my hearing snapped back into focus just in time for his yell.

"Not yet," I struggled to say. Just those two words making me cough which, in turn, caused my chest to feel like I was being stabbed.

"You can barely breathe. Just stop before you get seriously hurt."

"No." I wanted so bad to give him a long rant about how I never give up, but I just couldn't.

"Naruto! You're being stupid! Just give up!" Sakura screeched from the stands.

"No! Not done!"

I started coughing again, the taste of blood flooded my mouth this time. I knew I had to end this quick before I passed out and this was all for nothing. I put my hands in my favorite hand sign.

"Fine, I don't care if you give in. But there's no way I'm going to let you attack again. FANG OVER FANG!"

I heard the two of them fly through the air towards me as I thought quickly. Oh how lucky I was that they didn't find my clone from earlier. So, I quickly preformed a substitution with him.

Though it disoriented me, it was worth it to hear them give a surprised gasp as my clone poofed out of existence soon after their attack. Lucky for me my disorientation didn't last long after he destroyed it. I soon got a faint feeling of being hit with that justu again as well as knowledge concerning where I was compared to him.

"Shadow clone jutsu."

I let a smirk spread across my face as their feet shuffled on the floor quickly. I made as many clones as I could, which, if I had to guess was somewhere between fifty and a hundred. Not many comparatively but not bad for someone as injured as I was. I could almost feel the duo's shock as he was surrounded by so many of me, especially since I was quite sure they had the same smirk I had.

"Sick 'em," I told them quietly, but they all got the message as hundreds of feet charged at one place. At first I mostly heard poofs, but the more that were taken out, the easier it was for the rest of my clones to pinpoint his exact location and start winning.

It didn't take long for the poofing of disappearing clones to be replaced with that of Kiba and Akamaru being hit. And it wasn't too long after _that_ that they were knocked out of the ring and didn't get up.

"Time out," the proctor called.

I could hear footsteps walking over to where Kiba had fallen. He was probably checking the other boy's vitals to make sure I didn't go overboard.

"Kiba is unconscious and therefore cannot continue the match. The winner is Uzumaki Naruto!"

I smiled as a cheer went up around the room. It was mostly my clones celebrating our accomplishment but I was able to pick out a few voices cheering that I knew weren't mine. I recognized Choji, Iruka-sensei, Shikamaru to some extent (he isn't very loud to being with), and I might have heard Hinata but there's no way to be sure. Then for some reason I could hear that Taki girl louder then everyone shouting something like "now that was a fight!"

It was then that my clones decided that it was time to go and poofed away, leaving me with an overwhelming exhaustion.

It was also about now that my body remembered the fact that it was having difficulty breathing and decided it didn't want to stand up anymore. My knees buckled and I fell forward. I readied myself to hit the ground when I was suddenly grabbed around my torso.

I yelped as pain stabbed my chest again. But before I could flinch away from the arm, it moved to my shoulders, in order to sit me gently on the floor.

"Nice job, Naruto," Kakashi said, obviously being the person that helped me. He sounded sort of proud. "You did very well considering."

"Thanks." I tried to say more but ended up starting to cough once again.

"Let's get you to a medic so you can be fixed up."

"Sounds good," I rasped once I got my breath back, or at least as much of it as I could right now.

His arm disappeared, but before I could fall one way or the other, I was picked up in what seemed to be the bridal style. Though his one arm was more on my shoulders to keep the pressure off my ribs.

"We'll, take him from here," a voice said off to my left.

I felt someone try to take me, I wouldn't have really cared much if they hadn't tried to do so by touching my already hurt ribcage. I yelped again just as Kakashi took a step back and away from the other arm.

"That's alright, I got him. Just show me where to go."

"Follow the stretcher."

That was all I heard before my mind decided that it was also too tired for any of this and I started to doze. I was barely aware of the fact that we had started moving or that we stopped soon after for Kakashi to speak with a few people.

I'm pretty sure I completely fell asleep right then because the next thing I knew I was lying on a fluffy board, or a very uncomfortable hospital bed. For a moment, I thought I was alone, until a pair of hands, radiating some sort of heat, touched my ribs through my mesh shirt. Not knowing who this person was I immediately panicked and tried to get away from them.

"It's alright Naruto, it's just a medic. They're not going to hurt you, even if they wanted to." Kakashi's voice seemed relatively close by. I nodded in response but I guess I still looked tense. "Medic-san, can you give us a couple minutes. I'll call you in when he's less nervous."

"If you insist." The hands disappeared and then there were footsteps leading away from me till a door click shut. I relaxed knowing the man left the room.

"Naruto, you know they're trying to help you."

"They surprised me. I didn't think anyone was there." I found it a bit easier to speak, so I guess the medic already helped a bit.

"I figured that much."

"How long was I out?"

"Only a couple minutes."

"Oh, ok." I was quiet for a bit, before I thought of something. "What did the medic do?"

"He only had time to keep your ribs from piercing your lungs."

"He didn't get near my eyes?"

"Not in the slightest."

"Good." I let out the breath that I didn't know I was holding. "They're going to find out aren't they?"

"No, they're worried about your ribs, not your eyes." I heard a faint rustle of fabric but didn't think much of it. "But as for the rest of the world, I believe I've come up with an appropriate solution."

"Really? What?" I was starting to feel tired again, and I sounded like it, even to my own ears. Heck, it barely sounded like I was asking a question at all.

"This," was the only answer I got before he was slipped something over my head so whatever it was, rested over my eyes. My hand went up to touch it, feeling around the edges of the object.

"Goggles?"

"Yep." I could practically hear him smiling. "But not just any goggles. They belonged to a very close friend of mine, my old teammate actually. He was the one that said that those who don't protect their friends are worse than trash."

"That's nice. I have my own you know."

"Yes, but I thought you'd like these ones," he told me, happily. "That and I think he'd like the fact that they're being used again. Especially when it's by someone with such a similar nindo to his own."

"But-"

"They're orange."

"Really?"

"Yep, the lenses are orange so if you get you're sight back you'll be seeing everything though an orange hue."

"Awesome." I tried to sound excited about this because I really was. I loved orange! But I was just so tired that I couldn't muster enough energy to do so.

"Go to sleep, Naruto. You need your rest."

"But-"

"You're safe here. No one will find out about your eyes while you sleep."

"Ok." The next thing in knew, I was out.


	6. Chapter 6

Happy Monday everyone! Decided to change it up a bit. Anyways, thanks for the reviews. I'm quite surprised at the readers I'm getting for this story. There's more followers for this one story than the rest of mine combined, I think. If not it's pretty darn close. Again, you all have my thanks. :)

To thor94, I know that he's not supposed to be getting his senses so strong yet but I have an explanation for that later on so hang in there :)

So here's my new chapter, I hope it makes your Mondays a little better.

Hope you enjoy,

Trouble 1  
~~~~~~~~

! ! ! !ONE DAY LATER! ! ! !

My eyes snapped open, and having forgotten my predicament, I was startled not seeing anything. It wasn't till I shot up, looking around for something other than black, did I remember what happened. As if to remind me that things were less than good, a small ache started right behind my eyes.

I shook off my thoughts before they could turn negative, instead opting to figure out how my body was feeling. My ribs were a lot better than the last time I checked. Just to make sure, I pressed a hand against them and though there was still a bit of pain it wasn't nearly as bad as it used to be.

I could tell that my chakra was still messed up but there was nothing I could really do about that. I was still exhausted, which either could be because of my screwy chakra, or adding to it. Either way it wasn't much to be worried about either. So I laid back down on…whatever I was laying on before.

It was about then that I realized that I had no idea where I was. And since I couldn't exactly look, I had to guess. Well, my clothes were different, a long top made of some scratchy fabric. I don't think there were any pants with the ensemble but that was kind of hard to tell because there was a sheet over me.

By this alone, I could pretty much guess where I was, especially considering there was only one place I knew that smelled so strongly of antiseptic. Realizing I was taking up residence in the local hospital I tensed.

I didn't like the hospital and they didn't really like me either. They never tried to help me unless ordered to by the hokage. Usually they would either ignore me or try to stunt my healing process. Lucky for me the same reason they hated me was the reason I didn't need to come here as often. Kyuubi has taken care of a lot of the injuries that should have insured a trip to the hospital, though I still ended up here a fair amount due to lack of consciousness. Unfortunately this seemed to be one of those times.

I sat up, tossing the sheets off me before trying to get out of bed. I had just jumped down when my right arm was yanked back towards the bed by my elbow. As I stood unsteadily on my feet, I used my other hand to feel what was attached to my arm. It took me a couple seconds to figure out that it was actually an IV.

I was just reaching to pull it out when a hand stopped me. Startled, I jumped back onto the bed, scrambling across till my head came in contact with the wall.

"Naruto, it's me." I relaxed at the sound of Kakashi's voice. "You really have to stop being so startled when people sneak up on you."

"I'm not!" I got poked in my head, right where I had hit it making me yelp a bit.

"You sure? Because you look pretty nervous to me."

"Don't like hospitals," I mumbled, rubbing my soar head. "Smells funny."

"Can't argue with that." He sounded like he agreed but I'm pretty sure he wasn't completely convinced. I heard a squeak off to my right and I could only assume that it was from a chair. "Anyways, let's talk about your test."

"But I won it, what more is there to talk about?"

"You weren't listening to the explanation before the matches were you?"

"Uh, in my defense I had a lot on my mind at the time."

"I'm sure you did. Anyways, those were the prelims. You now have a month to train for finals."

"WHAT? Why didn't he tell us before?"

"He did, you weren't listen."

"Oh yeah." I heard him sigh, probably shaking his head like he usually does when I do something like that. "So Sensei, what awesome jutsus are you going to teach me?"

"I'm not." I blinked, trying to figure out if he was joking with me. "I have to train Sasuke for his match against one of the Suna shinobi."

"What? Why! And how does he know his opponent?"

"Oh yeah, you were unconscious for that." I gave him the no-duh look and he continued. "They pulled numbers out of a hat and put it into some elaborate graph thing. He has to go against Gaara, the red head with the gourd."

"What's so dangerous about him?"

"His last opponent, Rock Lee, is in intensive care right now being treated. They're, unsure if he can continue being a ninja."

"Oh." I looked away, feeling bad for the spandex wearing ninja. After all he was the dead last of his year like me.

"He would have killed him if Gai hadn't stepped in."

"So I'm going to have to train myself, aren't I?"

"Not necessarily. I was able to call in a few favors and got you a teacher for the month."

"How's that supposed to help?" I didn't even bother with pretending to look at him. "They'll probably try to teach me by showing me stuff and we both know that won't work unless I miraculously get my sight back."

"Ah yes, we haven't figured out if your…situation is permanent yet, have we." He didn't even phrase it as a question.

"Well, it seems pretty permanent to me," I said sourly but was obviously ignored as I heard the chair get pushed back and a pair of feet padding across the ground.

"I'm going to see if you can get signed out of this place." His footsteps began to lead away from me. "If so, were going to go visit my friend."

"The medical nin that lives outside the village?"

"Yep. If there's anything that can be done for you than she'll at least know about it. Be back soon."

The door clicked shut, leaving me alone in the hospital room for who knows how long. With Kakashi's tardy habits I wouldn't be surprised if 'soon' meant five hours from now after he's flirted with every nurse in the building then blame it on a cat again. I debated about just ditching him and leaving through the window but considering I didn't even know if this room HAD a window, I decided that probably wouldn't be the best decision right now.

Instead, I figured it would be better to at least find my clothes and get dressed because there was no way I was meeting someone new in a hospital gown. First checking if my new goggles were in place, and finding that they actually were, I inched to the side of the bed in search for the night stand I knew would be there. After finding it, I used my hands to check for my clothes. Throughout the two minutes it took to search the small table, I spilt a cup of water, jammed my fingers against the wall, and almost knocked my forehead protector to the floor, but didn't find my clothes.

It took me a minute to tie it in place and make sure it was right side up before resuming my search for my clothes. So I began crawling to the end of the bed, thinking it might be there somewhere. But before I got there my hand met empty air as my leg slipped off the edge of the bed, making me tumble to the floor. I laid there for a bit, my head spinning and my arm aching from my IV being yanked out in the fall.

"Itai," I murmured before righting myself so I was sitting on the floor.

I heard several pairs of feet hurry down the hallway giving me a bad feeling as my door shot open with a bang, those feet skidding to a halt at the same time.

"Uh, hi." I tried to sound cheerful even though I had no clue who was there. Though I was pretty sure it was a flock of nurses that heard the thump and came running before they realized whose room it was. "Nice weather we're having huh?"

"UZUMAKI!" one of them shouted, making my smile fade.

Just from her voice I knew which nurse was at the in front of them all. She was the witchy-iest nurse in the whole hospital, at least to me. To the other patients she was this sweet old lady that does everything she can for them. To me she was one of the main reasons I hate hospitals. She always gave me as many shots as she could get away with in the largest needles she could get her hands on. She was also the one that always stopped me when I tried to escape this horrid place. Whenever she caught me, she'd slap me hard enough to leave a bruise and was always able to pass it off as an injury I caused myself from a fall or something. I would try to tell Jiji, but all the nurses would back her up even though they knew the truth.

"YOU ARE TRYING TO ESCAPE AGAIN AREN'T YOU!?"

I tried to shrink into the floor, suddenly wishing I knew that head-hunter jutsu that Kaka-sensei used on the teme months back. When I didn't answer, she continued shouting, making my head hurt more from her sheer volume.

"WELL, ARE YOU? ANSWER ME BRAT!"

"I-I'm not! Really!" I insisted as I heard most of the feet start leaving the room, leaving me alone with the loud woman. "I just fell out of bed."

"Bull." Her voice flat as her volume was lowered slightly. Not enough to make a difference but it was a bit better. "Your headband is already on and your IV is mysteriously missing from your arm. You honestly think that I believe that you aren't trying to escape!"

"The IV ripped out when I-" I tried to explain, but she wasn't listening to me. She never did.

"I don't think so! That's not going to work this time brat!" Her volume started raising again, making the pain in my head grow even worse. "You're always trying to escape before you're even recovered!"

"Well, maybe if you weren't such a bitch I wouldn't have to!" I had wanted to say that for a while, but the tense silence that came after told me that I really shouldn't have.

"HOW DARE YOU, YA LITTLE…"

I flinched away, knowing what was coming but when the sound of skin hitting skin reached my ears, I became extremely confused at the lack of pain in my cheek.

"That's my student you're trying to hit." Kakashi's voice sounding colder than a steel katana left outside in a blizzard. "Not to mention, he is a registered ninja which means the laws concerning assaulting shinobi still applies to him. I'd think twice before even getting near him again. Is that clear?"

I heard her "hmm" as a pair of heels trot away through the door before slamming it angrily.

"Are you alright?" He was sounding normal.

"Yeah." It was silent for a bit before I spoke up again. "I hate her."

"I can see why." An arm reached under mine and helped me to my feet. I was a bit wobbly but I was able to stand on my own so he released me. "Is it safe to say that she is another reason you hate the hospital?"

I nodded lightly in response, not wanting to irritate my headache. It still wasn't going away, in fact it was growing more severe now that she was gone. Kakashi was saying something else, but I didn't hear what it was as the pain just kept increasing. I eventually I sat down and removed my goggles, then pushed my hands against my eyes, trying to relieve it even just a bit.

"Naruto?" Kakashi's voice asked, sounding worried he placed a hand on my shoulder. "Are you alright?"

"My head hurts," I murmured to him. "Right behind my eyes."

"How bad?"

"Bad." A pile of folded cloth was placed on my lap that felt like a very familiar fabric.

"Get dressed, we're going to Rin's as soon as you're done."

"Rin?"

"My medic-nin friend. I'm going to talk to the Hokage in the meantime and see about replacing a certain nurse we both now know and hate."

There was a bit of a swoosh that could only be from a shunshin. I smirked at that, hopping he was more successful than me. I sat there for a couple moments before convincing myself to let go of my eyes and figure out which piece of clothing was which.


	7. Chapter 7

Hey everyone. Happy Monday. Again thanks for all the reviews. I love feedback, whether it's good or bad it helps me improve as a writer. So, keep it coming.

To SilverSerpent001: Yeah, I know it was a bit slow, this one is too. But these chapters are necessary. That and Fu will show up pretty soon, no worries. :)

Anyways, This one's a bit longer then the rest but that's because there was no good break point at the 2,500 mark. So it was either have it too short or this long. So, here you go.

Hope you all enjoy,

Trouble 1  
~~~~~~~~

When Kakashi came back, five minutes later, Naruto still wasn't finished getting dressed. He had his pants on right but his tee-shirt was backwards with one arm through his collar along with his head. He had apparently stopped halfway through the process and was now laying on the bed with some of the sheet bunched up in his hands, pressing them against his eyes again.

"It's gotten worse, hasn't it?" He knelt down beside the bed, studying his student worriedly. The boy nodded into the blanket, not even speaking. "Alright, then let's get this shirt fixed and we'll leave. Rin will know what to do, promise."

Kakashi became worried when Naruto sat up, his fingers reluctantly releasing the sheet, but didn't give any other response than that. Kakashi swiftly fixed the shirt and helped him into his jacket before picking the boy up on his back and shooting out the window faster than a flying kunai.

He ran across the roof tops, reaching the edge of the village in record time. Seeing the gate, he dropped to the ground in front of the pair everyone called the eternal Chunnin. They jumped in surprise, but before they could start asking questions, Kakashi started answering them.

"Naruto and I are off to see a friend of mine, we'll be back tomorrow. Yes, the hokage already knows of the trip and approved it. And no, Naruto's not feeling all that well but he'll be fine when we come back. Ja ne."

Before either of them had opened their mouths to say anything, the two were out of sight.

He needed to get there as soon as possible. He didn't like seeing Naruto in such pain, he was supposed to be a happy, energetic person but right now he was so lifeless it was like carrying a doll on his back. The only thing that assured him that Naruto was still there was the boy's hands gripping his sensei's shirt sleeves and his face buried in his flask jacket.

It was only a couple minutes later that the pair landed in front of a wooden shack big enough for a couple people to live comfortably. They dropped to the ground, the older walking swiftly through the front door.

"Rin-chan, you here?" Kakashi called, hoping she wasn't out collecting herbs or something.

"In the kitchen, Kakashi-kun," a voice called back from down the hall.

The silver haired man hid a sigh of relief before walking through the living room towards her. He stepped through the doorway into a simple kitchen to see the brunette grinding herbs. Her relatively short hair was being held back in a small pony-tail to keep it out of the way. She was dressed in a light green short-sleeve shirt and a pair of black baggy pants with an apron to keep the herbs from making a mess of her clothes.

"I haven't seen you in a while. I thought you had that new genin team to take care of." She smiled, looking up from her work but in no way stopping. "Anyways, what brings you here today?"

"Him," he said, nodding his head towards the student on his back. Her eyes went wide when she caught sight of the small blond as her hands finally ceased.

"Is that…?"

"Naruto? Yes, he has a bit of a problem that I'd like to get your opinion about."

"What's wrong?" She slipped her apron off and set it on the countertop before moving to the boy's side.

"It's kind of complicated."

"Well, let's go to the guest room and you can tell me what happened."

She ushered him out of the room and down the hall to another. He went in and tried to put Naruto on the bed but the boy was so wrapped up in the pain that Kakashi couldn't get his hands unclenched from his sleeves. The silver haired man thought of trying to coax his student into releasing him but he doubted that Naruto could make out words right now.

"Rin, do you mind?" He gave her a pleading look.

She nodded, flashing through some hand signs before placing a hand on the blonde's head, knocking the poor boy out. She helped Kakashi set him on the bed, freezing once she caught sight of the goggles.

"Those are Obito-kun's."

"Yeah, long story but he earned them." Kakashi took the goggles off his head and placing them on the nightstand. "But what you need to look at is under them. When Naruto came back from the second test I noticed his eyes weren't tracking right. Somehow he lost his sight the night before and we can't figure out what caused it. That and as of a couple minutes ago, he gained an intense pain behind his eyes, which was putting him in the state you saw a moment ago."

"Then why did you come here? The Konoha hospital is a lot more prepared for this type of thing," Rin pointed out as she began treating him anyways. "I hardly have the technology for any of this."

"He wants to keep it a secret so he doesn't lose his ninja rank. That and I doubt they'd treat him very well. He doesn't like them and I saw first-hand that they don't like him either."

She nodded, her hands glowing green as she held them over the boy's eyes. She closed her own so she could focus on what she couldn't see. As she did so, Kakashi stayed quiet to keep from disturbing her concentration. Several minutes passed by before the green glow faded and she looked up at him, her gaze telling the silver haired man that the news she had for him was grim.

"What is it?"

"I'd rather wait to say once he's woken up. That way I don't have to say it more than once."

"That bad?"

"Yeah," she answered simply. "But I was able to ease the pain so when he regains consciousness, it won't be so debilitating."

"Just tell me one thing, will he be able to see again?" She was quiet for a moment, biting her lip as she decided whether or not to tell him.

"I, I don't know."

! ! ! !ONE HOUR LATER! ! ! !

My hand shot up to my eyes as soon as I woke up, surprised by the lack of both the pain and my new goggles.

"Where are my goggles?" I asked out loud, sure that either Kakashi or his friend, Rin, was in the room. Something scraped against wood to my left, making my head turn towards the sound.

"Here you go," a sweet voice said as something was placed in my lap. I picked it up, recognizing the increasingly familiar feel of my goggles.

"Thanks." I grinned as I sat up and slid them back on my head, finding it easier than tying my headband. "You're Kaka-sensei's friend, right?"

"Yes I am." Her voice didn't hold the resentment that most adult's do, which was a bit refreshing. "My name is Rin."

"Nice to meet you, Rin-san. I'm Naruto."

I held my hand out to shake, remembering the bit of manners that Jiji tried to teach me years ago. It's not that I didn't learn it, I just didn't put it into practice because none of the adults I was introduced to deserved it. With a bit of a chuckle she took my hand and shook it.

"Well, it's nice to meet you too."

"Is Kaka-sensei in here?" I asked after a moment. "I don't think so but I've been wrong twice before. He can be really quiet sometimes."

"No, he's in the kitchen cooking some dinner."

"He can COOK?!"

"He's lived by himself for a long time, it was either learn or eat out a lot."

"What about instant ramen?"

"You can't eat that all the time."

"I do."

"It's not very good for you."

"What are you saying? It's great food!" I was just about to give her a long lecture on the wonders of ramen when I heard footsteps coming down the hallway followed by a delicious smell that made me halt. Unfortunately it wasn't ramen but whatever it was it was certainly edible at the very least. "Kaka-sensei! What's that?"

A door squeaked open intensifying the smell slightly.

"Grilled cheese," he answered, sounding amused. "I figured you needed something relatively healthy. Plus you have to really try to make a mess if you're eating a sandwich."

"Why would you care if I made a mess?" I followed his footsteps as he walked across the floor before he placed a plate on my lap.

"Because I'd be the one cleaning it up."

"It smells good!"

The food wasn't hot so I figured it was one of the first out of the pan for my convenience. But that didn't matter to me, food was food and I felt like I haven't eaten in days. Which got me thinking as I ate, has it really been that long since I had eaten the ramen after the first test. At this point I didn't even know how long it has been since then. So instead of torturing myself with unanswered questions, I asked Kakashi.

"Uh, sensei?"

The air tensed as the pair stopped chewing their food. This brought up a whole other batch of questions that I decided to ignore for the time being. If being blind had any advantages it was that you could pretend not to notice the mood in the room and no one would know the difference.

"How long has it been since the prelims?"

"Finally decided that you wanted to know how long you were out huh?" Kakashi asked with a chuckle that sounded kind of relieved. I nodded. "One day."

"A day?!"

"Yep, it could have been worse. If it weren't for fluffy, you'd still be out."

"But I'm so far behind! Everyone else has already started training and I don't even know who my sensei is yet!"

"Relax, everyone else are still recovering from their wounds as well. I doubt anyone has started training yet."

"Oh yeah." We settled into a tense silence as we ate. Eventually I couldn't take it anymore and spoke up.

"Alright, what's going on here?" I demanded after I finished my sandwich.

"What do you mean?" Rin was clearly pretending not to know what I was talking about.

"You two have been walking on eggshells since I woke up." There was a surprised silence between the two that got on my nerves. "Just because I'm blind doesn't mean I don't notice these things."

"Might as well spill." Kakashi's chair creaking like he was reclining. I don't quite remember him sitting down in one but that was probably because of the food. "Can't put it off forever."

"I know." Rin sounded sad as she spoke. "I examined your eyes while you were out."

"Is that why my goggles were off?"

"Yes." She took a nervous breath before continuing. "Anyways, the eyes themselves are undamaged. Everything worked like it was supposed to until I got to the optic nerve. The nerve was, for the most part, severed a few centimeters behind the eyes. It's not completely detached, just enough so you can't see through them."

"Did you understand that Naruto?" Kakashi asked after a silent moment.

"I think so. The connection between my eyes and my brain was cut, right?"

"Yeah, but my question is how?"

"There was a bit of medical chakra still remaining on the nerves so I'm pretty sure we can safely assume it was done with a medical jutsu of some type."

"So it was done purposefully." Though Rin said nothing, I had the feeling that she nodded. "Is it reversible?"

"Not as far as I know. The nerve could probably be reconnected if it wasn't separated by chakra. If it was from regular wound we could try to patch them or, if we had to, grow them back. The person that did this, did it in such a way that it practically insures that they can't be fixed by someone like me. Someone like Tsunade might be able to but, even then I doubt it would be much of a chance."

The pair of them continued talking, I think they were trying to figure out who had the skill and opportunity to do this to me. But wasn't listening, I let their voices fade from my hearing, not wanting to hear anymore. Even though I didn't show it, I was secretly hoping that she would be able to do something, that this was reversible. Now that I knew it wasn't, that bit of hope fled, taking my resolve with me.

Without my sight I knew, despite my nature, that it would be practically impossible to achieve my goal of hokage. I'd end up risking my life every time I went on a mission, even if it was just simple D ranks. I would be useless to the village, there was practically no point to staying a ninja anymore, I might as well let the civilians kill me.

"Naruto?" My name coupled with a gentle hand on my shoulder got me out of my thoughts. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah." I flashed a smile at her even though I didn't feel like grinning. "I'm fine."

There was silence before she spoke up again.

"I'm sorry." Her voice sounding close to tears. "I wish I could fix this but I just don't have the skills to do something so complicated. I'm so sorry."

I closed my eyes for a moment to collect my thoughts. I didn't have time to be upset about this. I only had a month before the finals, if I became upset about this now all it would do is make me loose valuable time. I had to stay focused.

"It's not your fault," I said after I opened my eyes to the blank world around me.

"Speaking of fault," Kakashi said, interrupting whatever I was going to say next. "I might know who's it is. Naruto, you said earlier that you ran into Kabuto the day before right?"

"Yeah, what of it?"

"Before you woke up I caught him in Sasuke's hospital room prepared to kill him. I stopped him but he killed all the guards stationed there with some high quality medical ninjutsu."

"Kabuto? But he's a Konoha ninja! Why would he try to kill Sasuke?"

"I don't think you understand what I'm getting at, Naruto." Kakashi sighed before continuing. "Kabuto was the only one in the whole exams that has shown himself to be well versed in medical jutsu. He's also the only one with the opportunity to use said jutsus against you. I'm saying he's probably the one responsible for blinding you."

"But, he was practically harmless, for a ninja…"

"A ninja's greatest weapon is deception," Kakashi said gently. "If it makes you feel any better, I didn't think it could have been him either."

"It doesn't," I muttered. I heard him take a breath to say more when I interrupted him. "Can we change the subject please?"

"If you want."

"Why did it hurt this morning but not when it happened?"

"He fused chakra into the nerve when he cut it. Right now, the Kyuubi's chakra is acting like antibodies and attacking it. Apparently your byju doesn't like foreign chakra too much. That's where the pain was coming from, the two types of chakra fighting each other.

"It didn't hurt before because the chakra had yet to recognize the intruder and after it did, it took time for it to get there. It had to struggle past the seal and through your chakra pathways, all which took until you started feeling the pain."

"So the Kyuubi chakra was trying to get rid of the other stuff?"

"Yes."

"If it did get rid of it, would I be able to get my sight back?" There was silence for a moment as she thought.

"Probably not. Any byju chakra is highly poisonous, especially the Kyuubi's. Even if it is able to get rid of the other chakra, the damage it would have done to the nerve would be too great to fix. Optic nerves are not meant to contain such potent chakra, they're just too delicate."

"Why doesn't it hurt now?"

"Because I used my medical chakra to make it seem that the foreign chakra is actually yours. As long as it feels like yours, the byju chakra won't attack it. But it won't last forever, You'll have to come back here in about two months for me to repeat the procedure."

"You should have just let the Kyuubi get rid of it," I whispered after a moment.

"But there could be something that can be done that I don't know about. Letting the Kyuubi destroy your optic nerve would ruin any chance you might have had with it like this."

"But who knows where I'll be in two months." I was getting more nervous as I spoke. "I know you said you're not sure if something can be done, but wouldn't it be easier to keep me knocked out as the Kyuubi did its thing?"

"There are better medical ninjas than me, Naruto. They might know about something I don't and I wouldn't want to inconvenience them if they do."

"But I'm not going to tell anyone else about this!"

"You don't know that."

"I do, I'm not going to lose my ninja status for a maybe." I turned away from the pair of them stubbornly.

"There's something else isn't there?" Kakashi asked after a moment. I pretended not to hear him. "Naruto, are you scared of something?"

"No, I'm not!" My head snapped back towards him. "I'm not scared of anything!"

"Ghosts." The word itself made me shudder, which pretty much proved me wrong. "Now, what's worrying you?"

"It hurt," I said quietly, not even sure if he heard me. "It really hurt. I don't want to feel that ever again."

"You won't have to." A hand was placed gently on my shoulder, I guessed it was Rin because Kakashi's hand was bigger than that. "Just stop by once every two months and you won't have to worry."

"But I don't want to do that all my life! No offence but I just can't."

"Then just do so for 6 months. If you don't find someone that can help in six months then I'll do as you said and keep you unconscious until the foreign chakra is gone." I could almost hear the smile in her voice. "Does that sound better?"

"Yeah, I guess."

"Well, this is as good of a time to change the subject as any." Kakashi sounded oddly chipper. "We need to chat about that fight of yours coming up."

"You haven't even told me who I'm going to fight!" I glared in his direction, gaining a chuckle for my trouble.

"That's not what I want to talk about." He started to talk in a scolding tone which worried me. "You told me you wouldn't disobey my orders, right?"

"Yeah?"

"Didn't I also say that you were not ready to fight Kiba?"

"But I won!"

"Yes, you did. And that's the only reason I haven't pulled you from the competition just yet. But I will, if my conditions aren't met."

"What conditions?"

"I want you to come up with a substitute for your sight."

"What?"

"You barely won against Kiba. Everyone that's in the next stage is a lot better than him. You're going to need to be able to see or come up with some way to make it LIKE you're seeing so you have a chance of winning."

"But how am I supposed to do that!"

"I don't know, that's what you're going to have to figure out over the next month." He paused before speaking again. "Unfortunately, I'm going to be unavoidably preoccupied so I won't be able to help you. But don't think I won't be able know if you succeeded. I'll be waiting for you inside, ready to ask the question."

"What question?"

"THE question." He emphasized the 'the' with a finger tapping my nose.

"You mean THAT question?"

"But of course." He spoke as if he was smiling. "How else will I know? You'll have had a month to get used to it so anything else wouldn't work."

"So you're serious about all this, huh?"

"Damn straight. With your opponent, you're going to need all the help you can get."

"Wait, you know who I'm fighting?"

"Didn't I tell you?" He sounded way too innocent to be believed.

"No, you didn't. I don't even know who made it through to the next round."

"Well, as you know Sasuke and Gaara made it through, as well as Shino, Kankuro, Temari, Shikamaru, and, of course you." He spoke kind of slowly, like he was purposely avoiding what I wanted to hear. "The ones you missed were Neji, Duzo, and Fuu."

"Who were they against?"

"Neji versed his cousin Hinata, Duzo went against Choji, and Fuu was against Zaku."

"How did Neji win? Hinata has that cool eye jutsu that can pretty much see everything."

"So does Neji, and he's older and more trained in its use. That and he apparently holds a lot of resentment towards her. He almost killed her in that match."

My mouth dropped open, stunned. It took a couple seconds to process this, one Konoha nin trying to kill another out of hate? The thought of it was horrifying. But it was even worse than that, and I told Kakashi as much.

"Who in their right mind would try to kill their family?" I asked quietly, my voice rising in anger. "That insane! A family is a gift and all he's doing is treating them like dirt!"

"Trust me, I know. I know about as well as you do." I gave him a funny look, before shaking my head and continued my thoughts.

"Someone should teach him that."

"Glad you think so. Because you'll have the chance to do just that." I looked at him, about to ask why when he answered it for me. "Your first opponent is none other than Neji."

I was silent for a bit, my mind processing what he was saying before I burst out laughing.

"What's so funny?" Rin asked as I struggled to breathe. "Neji's going to be a hard person to beat. Not only is he a genius in his clans tijutsu but he has his byacugan down to almost an art."

"Exactly," I said between bouts of laughter. "Neji seeing everything. He's fighting me. The one that sees all VS. the one that can't see at all. Heh heh, this is going to be fun."


	8. Chapter 8

Hey everyone. Happy Monday. Thanks for all the reviews. I'm sort of happy to say that I have hit the halfway mark in what I have already written. That also means that I'm probably going to have to get my but moving and start writing this again. After all, you all would probably be quite upset with me if I left it where it is now. Not the best place, if I do say so myself.

Anyways, to KaliAnn, I am aware that my spelling is a bit of a problem at times. Spelling has always been my Achillies heel when it comes to writing. Thanks for the note tho. :)

Before I start, I'd also like to note that I vaguely used another Naruto abridged joke in this chapter. And if the ending's strange to you that's because I couldn't find a really good break point...again.

Hope you enjoy,

T1  
~~~~~~~~

! ! ! !THE NEXT DAY! ! ! !

Kotetsu and Izumo were sitting at the table, Izumo trying to get his friend to play a card game to relieve his boredom when Kakashi appeared with Naruto on his back just like the day before, except this time the boy was completely awake.

"Hi Izumo! Hi Kotetsu!" Naruto waved at them happily.

"Morning Naruto, Kakashi," Izumo said, trying to hide his confusion.

"Everything was taken care of," Kakashi informed them. "I'm going to drop him back at his apartment then I'll be right over to the hokage like I'm supposed to be. You wouldn't mind letting him know, would you?"

"You were supposed to be there an hour ago."

"We got lost in the forest where we ran into a hermit who took us captive. It was all we could to sneak out of there this morning." Surprisingly, this excuse came from Naruto.

"Good one," his sensei praised.

"Thanks, came up with it on the way here. I figured we'd need one. The whole "black cat" routine is getting kinda old."

"Watch it, that's my best excuse."

"But it's boring! There's no creativity in it!"

"Well, then how 'bout you come up with my excuses from now on."

"You know what, I think I just might!"

"Uh, excuse me," Izumo said, succeeding in getting the pairs attention. "The hokage's expecting you Kakashi."

"My apologies. Do tell him I'll be there soon."

"And when he arrives three hours from now, his excuse I'll be that he discovered Tora in an alleyway and was engaged in a game of cat and mouse, where he was unfortunately the mouse."

"Thanks Naruto." He tipped an imaginary hat towards the guards in a sort of thanks. "Ja ne!"

There was a slight poof as the two left via shunshin. The guards looked at each other for several seconds.

"So, who's going to explain all this to the Third?" They were silent for another moment before competing in a swift round of janken pon, to which Izumo lost.

"Damn," he whispered, as Kotetsu shunshined away as well. "I really wanted to get away from this desk."  
-

"Well, here you are." Kakashi put me down so I was standing on the ground. I knew I was in my apartment just by the familiar smell, which was something along the lines of old wood and ramen. "Sure you'll be alright alone here?"

"It's my house, if I can't figure out how to get around here then I might as well just hand over my forehead protector."

"Naruto-"

"But seriously sensei, I'll be fine." I waved a hand dismissively as I headed in the direction of my kitchen. "I'm going to make some ramen."

"Don't use the stove." I stopped and spun around to face him.

"Why not?!"

"It would be best for everyone that you don't try to burn the apartment complex down."

"And why do you think I'd do that?"

"Simple, because you think you're heading to the kitchen when in fact you're three inches away from walking into your front door."

I glared at him, raising a hand, determined to prove him wrong right up until I banged my knuckles into the door. Of course, my sensei just ignored me and continued to talk as if I didn't just injure myself.

"So with that being said, no stove for you."

"But, my ramen!"

"You have hot water, right?" I nodded, though it wasn't always as hot as I would like, it's not worth complaining. "Use that."

"But sensei!" I began to complain before hearing a small poof. "Sensei? Sensei!"

I didn't get an answer so I could probably assume he left.

"Bastard," I murmured as I turned the other way and headed back to the kitchen. On the way there, I ended up bumping into the table, tripping over a chair and hitting my hip on the countertop. "Damn, this is going to be harder than I thought."

It took me five minutes just to find the stuff I needed, luckily I live off plastic wear so anything that fell didn't shatter on contact. After that, I waited for the food to be ready but when, after ten minutes, it was still crunchy gave up. I was starving, and didn't want to wait any longer to eat, so I tossed the ramen towards the sink, celebrated briefly when I heard it actually go in, then pulled out my book and headed towards Ichiraku's.

Apparently, I knew my way to the ramen shop better than around my own house, because I had absolutely no trouble finding my way there. Though, I myself can't take much credit for that, after all I was following the scent of ramen the whole time. I did have some trouble dodging people but other than that I got there without much difficulty.

Unfortunately my impeccable luck didn't last that long. I had put my book on the table and just as I went to sit down, someone yanked me away by the collar.

"What are you doing out of bed Uzumaki?" a man demanded. It took me a couple of seconds to recognize the voice as Ebisu. "Kakashi said you wouldn't be able to start training until tomorrow because you were recuperating. This doesn't look like resting to me."

"I got hungry?" My answer sounded more like a question, which didn't convince him any, I'm sure. "Wait, you're training me?"

"Yes."

I heard some sort of clink coming from where his face would be. The only guess I had to that was either he was straightening his glasses or he was suddenly wearing a bunch of earrings. But since this is Ebisu were talking about, I figured it was the first.

"What!? That jerk!"

"I'm not any happier about this then you are. I would much rather be home reading my books."

"You mean your porn." My answer was accompanied by a choking sound from where he was.

"I-it is n-not p-p-porn!"

"Fine, smut, exotic literature. Whatever you pervs are calling the icha icha books now."

"You know what brat? Seeing as how you seem well enough to insult your new teacher, you're definitely well rested enough to begin training." I could almost hear his evil grin.

"Alright, sounds fine to me."

"Right now."  
-

"HEY! LET GO!" Ayme heard Naruto shout from her spot behind the table. "I CAN'T LEAVE YET! I HAVE RAMEN TO EAT! NOOOOOO— oh, hey Ayme! Can you keep an eye on my book? I'll be back for it. Thanks!—NOOOOOOOOO! I DEMAND RAMEN!"

The short, blond boy continued shouting until they were well out of sight and earshot.

"Was that Naruto?" her father asked from the stove.

"Yep." She picked up the book and put it behind the counter for him to get later.

"He was dragged away again, wasn't he?" She hummed an affirmative, not bothering to truly answer.

"How dare they do that! Without Naruto eating here we'll go broke!" She nodded in agreement as she waited for their best customer to come back, because he always did.  
-

"Jerk," I murmured as I sat on the ground, pouting angrily.

I was sitting on a patch of grass surrounded by the smell of minerals, the sound of moving water and giggling. If I put all this together I was pretty much sure I was in, or near, a bath house. I should have known the perve would bring me here.

"What are we doing here, Ebisu-Ero?"

"We're here for training of course."

"Are you sure it's not for peeking on girls."

"Of course not! I'd never do such a thing!" His exclamation was louder than it needed to be, probably for the sake of the girls that were doing the giggling. Well, most of it anyways.

"Whatever. What's this training I'm supposed to be doing?

"You're going to walk across that pond over there." I could tell he was pointing right at the damn thing, so I had to come up with a quick excuse.

"Nope. It's against my religion."

I winced at the absurdity that my mind came up with as a thump was heard that probably indicated some sort of face fall. This was going to be hard to explain but it was a little late to change now. I had no other choice but to go with it.

"What?" Ebisu exclaimed.

"It's against my religion that a lowly human should be able to do what only the kamis can."

"Naruto! Konoha doen't have a religion!"

"Uh…What do you call the Will of Fire then?" He was quiet for a moment before speaking again.

"Alright, that's a religion. But we don't have anything else."

"What about the Flames of Youth-"

"YOUTH!" a voice interrupted me from far away.

"Or the Fire Extinguisher of Fate."

There was silence for a moment, but Ebisu and I waiting to hear a shout that never came.

"The Fire Extinguisher of Fate is not a religion," Ebisu said finally.

"I was sure someone would have started worshiping it by now," I answered simply before coming up with another one. "Oh, what about the Log."

"The log is not a religion either."

"Tell that to the clans, they worship the thing like it created ninjutsu right alongside the sage of six paths. I wouldn't be surprised if that's why clucky vs. the log was such a controversy."

"But how is water walking against any of those?"

I froze, trying to convince my mind to come up with something quickly.

"Well, it's not. My religion is completely different. And secret! Very secret. So secret, in fact, that if I tell you anymore about it I'd be thrown out of the order."

"What?"

"They take their religion very seriously."

"If you're not allowed to walk on water then why can you defy gravity and walk up a wall?" he asked, stopping my farfetched excuse in its tracks.

"Uh..." I tried to stall, my idiot brain not coming up with anything to counter it.

"Thought so, now walk." He grabbed my coat and pulled me to my feet.

"But you haven't even told me how?"

"It's just like tree climbing but you have to keep changing the level of chakra because the water's moving."

His explanation was rushed, as if he were hoping I have missed most of it. He pushed me forward making me stumble, my left foot shoe splashing into the water a bit, which is what I was waiting for. Now I knew where the water I was supposed to be walking across was.

"Fine, but if I get kicked out of the order for this, I'm blaming you." I began focusing my chakra into my feet as I spoke, more to keep appearances than anything. "Heck, I might even take pranking back up to get revenge for it."

"YOU'RE NOT IN AN ORDER!"

I ignored him and continued trying to focus. It was difficult, probably more than it should have been since my chakra was still feeling funny. It wasn't moving like it should be, which made my already shoty chakra control even worse. So I wasn't very surprised when I stepped out towards the water and ended up sinking straight through the surface. What DID surprise me was the fact that the pond was hotter than boiling water.

Luckily I had taken a deep enough breathe to make sure I would float to the surface despite my heavy clothing, and didn't really have to worry about drowning. Instead I was kicking myself in the butt about not bringing a package of ramen with me. It would have cooked up so nicely in this pond. Like I was being right now.

As soon as my head broke the surface, I leaped backwards, towards where the land should be, screaming about it being hot.

"Stop being a wimp, it's not that bad," he said soon after I landed on the grass again.

"Not that bad?! I could cook ramen with this water in about a minute! And it takes THREE!"

"I guess you'll have to learn quickly then." There was an audible smirk that I've been hearing a lot lately. It was really starting to annoy me.

"You're lucky I don't throw you in the bush over there with the other pervert."

"What?" I heard two voices say in unison, one of which sounded similar to the giggling I heard earlier.

Apparently my guessing is getting better. It was about then that I felt a swishing around my eyes which could only mean that these old goggles weren't waterproof. So with a sigh I took them off to clean them.

"What were you doing in the bush?" Ebisu asked the man as the rustle of leaves could be heard.

"Shush! You're going to scare them away!" he hissed back.

"Scare what away?" There was a moment of silence, a silence full of female giggling, before he answered his own question. "HOW DARE YOU PEEP ON THE WOM-" unfortunately before he could finish his accusation, there was a thump and a quickly fading scream.

"Damn man should just admit he's a pervert instead of trying to get the rest of us in trouble," the remaining man muttered, obviously something happened to Ebisu that made him suddenly disappear.

"Did you just punt my sensei?" I kept my head down as I tried to dry my goggles.

"Didn't you see the fantastic throw?!"

"There's hot water on my eyes," I muttered quickly. There was silence so I explained. "Apparently my goggles leak."

"Goggles? What goggles?" I held them up before slipping them over my eyes. "Are those-"

"Kakashi-sensei's teammates? Yep, my sensei gave it to me after the preliminaries. Don't know why, it's not like I don't have a pair of my own." I straightened my goggles until they felt right.

"So you're Naruto," he stated, not a question in his voice. I looked up towards him questioningly.

"How do you know my name?"

"I trained your sensei's sensei."

"But his sensei was the Fourth. Wait, you trained the fourth!?"

"Yep! I bet you know who I am now."

"Not a clue."

"What?! I'm Jiraya the toad sage!"

"You're still just an old pervert to me."

"I am not an old pervert! I'm a super pervert!" My face connected with the floor from the sear stupidity of the statement.

"Whatever." I climbed to my feet and dusted off my pants. "I gadda get back to training."

I paused for a moment before remembering that my sensei was gone.

"Great, how am I supposed to train if I don't have a sensei?" I stood there for a moment, before I heard that old pervert try to sneak away which gave me an idea. "Hey, you can train me."

"No."

"Well, you're the reason I don't have a sensei so you should replace him."

"What? I don't think so."

"You wanna bet?"

"I'm not Tsunade, kid." I stood there for a moment trying to figure out who this Tsunade was. I remembered a sannin medic mentioned in my history class by that name but I wasn't sure, so I asked.

"Isn't she one of the sannin?"

"Come on! You recognize her name but not mine? What is this world coming to!"

"Well, she's a sannin."

"SO AM I!" he shouted in my face.

I didn't respond as I thought back to academy class, trying to remember his name being mentioned. It took me a moment to remember a Jiraya being mentioned shortly after the other two

"Oh yeah, now I remember," I said, placing a fist in my palm. "You're the one with the hair jutsus."

"That's all you remember about me? No wonder you're the dead last," he muttered to himself. "I guess I'll have to introduce myself properly then."

He cleared his throat. I heard him quickly go through several hand signs before hitting the ground as he shouted something about a summoning jutsu. After a large poof and the smell of strange smoke wafted away, he continued his introduction from several feet in the air.

"I am the writer of the bestselling novels in the world, the toad sage, master of seals, keeper of the Konoha information ring, and the man that makes every women swoon! Jiraya!"

"Why are you on a frog?" I was guessing again. After all he did say it was a toad sage so he could probably summon them.

"It's a toad!" he shouted before another poof was heard, followed by the sound of someone crashing into the road.

"Whatever." I shook my head at his antics. "Wait, did you say master of seals?"

"Yes I did." He climbed to his feet. An idea popped into my head regarding my messed up chakra that made me almost grin.

"How good?"

"I am called a master."

"On a scale of academy student to the fourth."

"Little bit below my student, if I'm to be honest. Why?" I started to believe that this might actually work.

"My seal got messed up in the second test, do you think you could fix it?"

"What seal kid?" he asked after a slight hesitation. That pause told me he knew exactly what I meant. I've been lied to enough throughout my life to be able to tell as much.

"You know what seal. The one on my stomach that nobody's allowed to talk about. You gunna fix it or what?"

"How about the 'or what.'"

"Guess I'll have to find someone else."

"You'd cause quite the stir if you did that." Jiraya's playful tone replaced with a more serious one.

I pretended to stare at him stubbornly as he was, no doubt, staring back. It was quite hard to keep from laughing when I realized he was trying to have a staring contest with a blind kid.

"Fine, but not here." I jumped in victory. "There's too many people around for something like this."


	9. Chapter 9

wow...almost forgot it's Monday. A bit busy today. Chaos I tell you. Thanks for the reviews. The chapter's a bit short and not much happens but here it is.

Hope you Enjoy,

Trouble 1  
~~~~~~~~

"Fine, but not here." I jumped in victory. "There's too many people around for something like this."

His footsteps started moving away relatively quickly, leaving me to catch up with him on my own. It was difficult, after all I was using only my hearing to figure out where he was headed. I stumbled quite a few times on sticks but other than that I did pretty good. We were only walking for about ten minutes when he announced we were here right before I could walk into him.

"This should do." Wherever we were, it still smelled like minerals but not as strong as before, that and the water sounded like it larger than the other. "Off with the jacket."

"Excuse me?"

"The seal's on your stomach, right?" I nodded. "I can't very well see through clothes now can I?"

"You'd enjoy that too much," I stated as I removed my jacket as well as my shirt. "There, happy."

"I'd be happier if you were a chick but then I would be a blubbering idiot so it's probably for the best," he murmured, more to himself than me. "Alright, focus your chakra into your stomach."

"Why?"

"Stop asking so many questions brat!"

"Then start explaining stuff better!"

"Fine, the chakra reveals your seal. Now focus your chakra so I can see what's wrong with it."

"Alright then," I started forming a seal and doing as he said.

"Damn geki." He hummed in thought. "Well, that's probably the problem right there. Someone put a secondary seal over the one you already had."

"It wouldn't be a Five Pronged Seal, would it?" I asked, remembering what the snake-teme had called it in the forest.

"Actually it is. I guess you know who did it then."

"It was that weird, snake-loving girly man that gave Sasuke-teme the hicky."

"Damn, I should have guessed he was behind it," he said to himself before talking back to me. "But there's no need to worry, it's an easy fix."

"How?"

"Like this," was the only warning I got before he said "Five Prong Seal: Release!" and slammed his palm in my stomach. I stumbled back in pain, though it wasn't as bad as when the seal was put on but it still hurt. "There, now try your water walking."

"Fine, but if it didn't work your next on my reinstated pranking list."

I walked towards the sound of the water as he mumbled something about being a carbon copy of some Kushina person. I ignored him as my toes touched the water so I could start channeling my chakra into my feet. I could already feel a difference as it rushed to my feet in a controlled burst, unlike before. Feeling better about this, I stepped confidently towards the water. And it worked, I could feel my feet sink slightly into the water but stop before I even half my foot was wet, and long before I touched the sandy ground.

"It works!" I yelled happily. I looked down at my feet for show then ran out a little farther before turning around and heading back the way I came. "Guess I won't have to put you on my list."

"Oh thank kami!"

"So what do I do now?"

"Keep practicing."

"Why? I have it down just fine."

"The more you practice, the better your chakra control gets and trust me kid, you need it." I thought on this for a moment before nodding in agreement. "So get started gaki."

"Alright, but you're buying my ramen. Ebisu-Ero took me away from my lunch."

"But I'm training you! You should be buying ME ramen in thanks."

"But a sensei should treat their student to food after a grueling day's work." He made an unbelieving huff before I continued, bringing up my best argument. "After all, ramen is the best way of keeping me quiet."

"And why would I need to keep you quiet?"

"Well, I'm pretty sure that the girls in the bath house would LOVE to here who was peeping on them a half hour ago."

"You wouldn't." I could almost feel the glare that was surely aimed at me.

"Try me." I matched his glair, starting another useless staring contest between us. I must have looked pretty convincing, because he gave up quite soon.

"Only this once, and you have to work hard or the deals off."

"Hai!" I focused my chakra and ran towards the water, only to fall right through the surface.

"This might be funnier than I thought." I heard him call once I broke the surface again. I glared at him before climbing out and trying it again.

! ! ! !5 HOURS LATER! ! ! !

"I'm done." Jiraya heard his new student say.

He looked up from his writing to see the boy purposefully fall backwards into the sand. It was about 4 in the afternoon so by his calculations, Naruto had been working for almost 5 hours now. Jiraya thought it an impressive feat for a boy straight out of the hospital, especially since he wasn't looking too good when he was checked out. Yes, he was well aware of most of what happened. At least that he was hospitalized, thought to have tried to escape, then escorted by Kakashi to his teammates hut with something a kin to a headache. It seemed whatever young Rin did, it must have worked, after all Naruto has been working hard for most of the day without end.

Of course, he wasn't going to tell Naruto any of this, it would probably just inflate his ego and that didn't need to be any bigger.

"Seriously? Is that all you got?" he taunted. "The sun's still up."

"And I just got out of the hospital!" The boy shouted, his breathing still labored from his training.

"So? That's no excuse."

"I'm tired!"

"Fine, I guess considering everything you earned your dinner." Naruto threw his fist in the air in victory only to let it drop back to the ground with a quiet thump. "Well, get up and we'll leave."

"Can't."

"Can't?" Naruto nodded without lifting his head. "Why can't you?"

"Too tired."

"Then how do you expect to get there? Me carrying you into town?" Jiraya asked sarcastically.

"Yes."

"Seriously?" The boy nodded again. "What makes you think I'd even CONSIDER doing that?"

"Women's bath house."

"You can't blackmail me twice with one thing!"

"Says who?" He was silent as he tried to come up with something legitimate the boy would believe.

"Damn brat," he murmured, coming up empty handed as he picked the blond up and put him, unceremoniously, onto his back. "I don't want to hear a single complaint, got it?"

"Hai," Naruto murmured, sounding as if he were about to fall asleep.

So it wasn't a surprise when after a minute or two he heard a light snoring coming from his back. Jiraya shook his head at the boy's easy ability to trust almost anyone. It was kind of nice to see a ninja still so naive about the world, even though he knew that he'd have to teach him otherwise eventually.

Jiraya paused for a moment, trying to figure out exactly when he decided to continue training him. Maybe it was when he showed his determination to get stronger, or when he actually noticed his chakra was out of whack by himself. No, it was when he saw him. He looked too much like his old student, like his father, to be ignored.

He didn't consciously think about the fact that Naruto's father would never be able to teach his son his best ninjutsu, the rasengan, the flying thunder god technique, or even sealing in general. He just knew that he needed to teach him in his student's place.

"Guess I'm stuck with you for a bit," he mumbled to himself as the ramen stand came into view. "Hey gaki, we're here."

Jiraya spoke up, but didn't get a response from the boy.

"Hey did you hear me back there? We're at the ramen stand." He mumbled something into his sensei's back but did nothing else, not even wake up.

"He must have been more tired than he let on," the adult said to himself. "Guess I'll just take him home then."

He was about to turn around when he remembered why he was taking the kid out for ramen to begin with. So with a sigh he went up to the stand and ordered two containers of beef ramen to go. After all, he couldn't have him going around telling everyone he's been spying on bath houses. Although most people already knew this, sometimes letting someone think they have the upper hand opens up a whole different world of opportunities. After all, how could he train the boy if he didn't let him think it was his idea in the first place?

"Is it for Naruto?" The pretty waitress asked after delivering the order to her father.

"How'd you guess?" he teased.

"Call it a hunch," she said with a smile, glancing at unconscious blond on his back. "Oh, I almost forgot. Can you give him this when he wakes up? He forgot it when his other teacher dragged him away this morning."

She had reached under the counter, placing a familiar book on the table top. He stared at it for a bit before picking up the book and putting it in his pocket.

"Don't worry, I will," he said with a smile. By now the ramen was already done and placed in travel containers. He quickly paid for the meal before grabbing his bag and heading towards Naruto's apartment.


	10. Chapter 10

Hey everyone! Happy almost Easter! This chapter is a little long...but hey, it answers some questions so it's all good. Thanks for the review everyone. I'm glad you all are enjoying it. And just for clarification, I'm going to be posting every Monday until I run out of pre-written material. I'm a few pages over half way so you still have some time left. After that I'll try to stick with that schedule, but it might not work very well.

Anyways, to thor94, don't worry about it. Naruto has a lot of learning and growing he's going to do before he fights Neji. :)

So, as always, hope you enjoy,

Trouble 1  
~~~~~~~~

My eyes shot open as I heard my front door slammed shut. Thinking someone had broken in at some point, I grabbed a kunai from my pouch. As quietly as possible, I snuck towards the kitchen, only to trip on something and make a bunch of noise in the process.

"Naruto, whatever you're doing in there, you should probably clean up the floor first," I heard a voice call from the kitchen.

"Kakashi?" I asked, climbing to my feet, I headed towards the main room. "What are you doing in my kitchen? Again."

"Dropping off food, that's not ramen."

"Not ramen?! What's wrong with ramen?!" I demanded as I ran my hand along the hallway wall until I got into the main room.

"It's not very healthy," he answered from someplace near where the table should be. "You're sensei wants you to start eating better so you won't be so exhausted like you were today."

"That was because of the fight and you know it!" I said, pointing an accusing finger at him.

"A bit more to the left." I adjusted my finger accordingly. "There you go."

"But I want my ramen!" I pouted.

"There's no need for water works, you're new sensei left two bowls on the table for you," he said, I heard a paper bag rustle and the smell of Ichiraku's ramen filled the room.

"Yes! The black mail still works!"

"You black mailed a sannin?" he asked, sounding mystified. I ignored him as I rushed over to the table, not caring that I bumped into it in my search for food. "How am I not surprised."

It didn't take me long to find the food or to start devouring it. In fact I was half way through the first bowl before I realized what Kakashi had said.

"Wait, you met my new sensei?" I asked after swallowing a mouthful of ramen.

"Yep, he was dropping you off as I was bringing in the food. How you were able to talk him into training you I'll never know."

"Blackmail."

"Again?"

"It works, doesn't it?"

"You really shouldn't be blackmailing people, Naruto. It doesn't really mesh too well with your nindo."

"I don't do it all the time," I stated simply, continuing to eat as I spoke. "It's really more of a last resort, well, more of a second to last resort. Before that's prank-listing them and after that it's sexy jutsu."

"And how does that work for you."

"Surprisingly well actually. You'd be amazed how many perverts there are in Konoha. Instead of being called Village Hidden in the Leaves, it should have been called Village Hiding all the Perverts."

"Seriously?" He had an unbelieving tone to his voice as he stopped putting away the food.

"Seriously. I'm actually surprised there hasn't been restraining orders from the other villages because of this."

"That's because they never let it affect their work," He answered. I paused in my eating to give him an unbelieving look before continuing on to the next bowl.

"Sure, whatever you say sensei."

"Well, I'm starting to train Sasuke tomorrow so I won't be able to check up on you for a while, probably not 'til the exam," Kaka-sensei warned, continuing to put away different cans and boxes.

"That's alright, I think I'm getting the hang of everything."

"Oh, and Jiraya-san said for you to be at the lake by 8 am tomorrow, and if you're not, he'll come here and drag you there. His words exactly."

"Hmm, I guess it would be better if he came and got me, wouldn't it?"

"Why?" Before I could answer he tried to answer for me. "It's because you're having trouble figuring out the time, isn't it?"

"Huh?" I stopped eating my ramen in my confusion.

"I guess you haven't discovered that yet," he muttered to himself, making me think.

I mean, of course I'd know what time it is, it's not like I don't know how to read a clock and if that fails I always can tell by where the sun is in the sky… My eyes went wide as I realized what he was talking about.

"Sensei!"

"Yes?"

"I can't tell time anymore!"

"Glad to see you caught up."

"How can I be on time if I don't _know_ the time?!"

"Just blame it on me. Everyone would believe you're picking up my tardy habit."

"But that's only if I'm late, I could be really early or come on the wrong day entirely." I threw my hands in the air in emphasis, sending one of my chopsticks into the wall behind me. "This is a real crisis, sensei!"

"Ma ma, calm down. It's not much of a crisis yet. You'll be busy with Jiraya all month who will probably pick you up every day, especially if you're late," he stated simply, still placing cans on the shelf. "Anyways, I'll think of something so don't worry."

"Alright," I answered before turning back to my ramen only to remember I didn't have my chopsticks.

I thought for a moment only to shrug and picked up the bowl to slurp what was left. As I finished, Kakashi crumbled up what had to be a paper bag or two and tossed it into something, probably the trash.

"Well, there you go," he said once the noise had stopped.

"What did ya get me?"

"Bunch of canned food and some random snacks."

"Sweet!" I exclaimed. "Arigato Kaka-sensei!"

"You're welcome." We were quiet for a moment which let my mind wander.

"Uh sensei?" He hummed, letting me know he was listening. "I was just wondering about something. Ever since the exam my other senses have been getting sharper. You don't happen to know why, do you? "

"They're compensating for your lack of sight."

"But are they supposed to be doing that now? Shouldn't it be a bit slower?" He was silent for a moment before speaking again.

"How sharp are your senses already."

"Well, I could follow the scent of ramen all the way to Ichiraku's, starting from only a block from my house."

"Were you able to smell that before?"

"I don't think so."

"Have any of your other senses become as sharp?"

"Well, in the fight, I could hear Kiba moving."

"You mean his footsteps."

"No, his clothes moving. And Sakura's been extremely loud lately, I could barely stand to be next to her in the pre-limbs. Is that normal?"

"Your senses should take longer to enhance then that," he said slowly. "I asked Rin about it before we left. I'm not sure why they're already so acute only after a couple days. Unless..."

"Unless what?"

"Never mind, it's an absurd theory. Didn't make sense in the slightest."

"But-"

"Why look at the time! It's getting late, no need to get up I'll let myself out. Ja ne!" There was a poof indicating his departure.

"Asshole," I murmured as I continued to just sit at the table.

After a couple seconds of breathing in the lingering ramen fumes I began lamenting my lack of ramen in the house. Then I realized that if the need for ramen becomes too much, I could always make my new sensei buy it for me.

With a yawn, I wondered what time it was. I probably should have asked Kakashi while he was here. Right now I didn't even know if the sun was still up or not. I shrugged, deciding not to bother with it. If I was tired, I was going to go to bed, time be damned. So, with a smirk I headed back to my room to sleep.

! ! ! !THE NEXT DAY! ! ! !

I woke up that morning to find the Ero-sannin, which is what I decided to call him, dragging me out of bed as he complained about my lack of an alarm clock.

"Who needs an alarm clock?" I mumbled tiredly.

"Obviously you!" he shouted, making me wince slightly. "It's 8:45 in the morning, you were supposed to be at the beach at 8!"

"But seriously, I don't need an alarm clock with you around."

"And how do you think that?"

"You're loud, annoying, and tell me the time."

"Alright, smartass, who woke you up for the academy? I highly doubt Iruka would stop his whole class just to drag you out of bed."

"My alarm clock."

"Where is it?" He demanded again.

"How am I supposed to know? It was here when I left," I answered with a shrug. It was obviously frustrating him but he deserved it if he was yelling at me before breakfast. "Someone must have snatched it."

"And you didn't lock your door because?"

"Oh yes, because locking the front door is EVER so helpful in a village full of NINJA," I stated sarcastically. "All the thieves would come up to the door with all their tools, find the door locked and yell, 'damn, it's locked. Too bad I don't have a lock picking jutsu. Or lock picks. Or a hair pin!' Then turn around and leave!"

"Ok, but why an alarm clock?"

"Look around and tell me if you see anything else of any value in here because if you do, I'll surely return it to the thief that dropped it."

"Alright, I get it," The sannin relented. "Get dressed so we can leave."

"I am dressed."

"Those are the same clothes you wore yesterday."

"And how can you tell that?" I asked wryly, since all my clothes were either those jumpsuits or pjs.

"They still smell of salt water." I sniffed my shirt curiously, only to wince away at the strange smell of salt and sweat. "So get changed into something clean."

"This is the cleanest one I have." There was a stunned silence for several seconds before I spoke again. "I didn't have time to do laundry before I left so everything that was a little dirty at the start of the exam is now really dirty."

"You have to be kidding me."

"Nope."

"Fine, then the first order of business is for you to collect all those jumpsuits of yours while I try to figure out how to make doing laundry a training exercise," he half ordered me, as his footsteps began to recede from the room and towards the kitchen.

"Can you make some breakfast while you're in there?" I called, climbing up off the floor.

"Why should I?!"

"Because I work a lot better on a full stomach!"

I heard him muttering as he started going through my cupboards. While he was preoccupied in the other room, I found my basket and began searching for the four other jumpsuits I knew to be scattered across the floor.

I had to sweep my hands across the ground, picking up whatever fabric I touched. I kept count of the different pieces I picked up, hoping I could find them all before he came back. When I was relatively positive I had everything, I picked up the basket and carried it down the hall, careful to drag the corner of my box across the wall so I knew where it was.

"Are you done yet?" the sannin shouted down the hall, which turned out to be right in front of me.

"I don't know, am I?" I said sarcastically.

"Shut it gaki," he said.

Before I could say anything in response I was hit in the head by something. The object dropped into my basket as I stood there stunned.

"What was that for?"

"That's you're breakfast, be happy," he grumbled before a hand was placed on my shoulder. "Were running late so I'm just going to shinshun us there."

"Ok."

There was a swoosh and my feet found themselves buried in the sand. I put down my clothes as he began explaining my laundry based chakra exercise. Apparently I was to stand on the water while I scrubbed my clothes against a rock, if I understood him correctly.

"Wouldn't it be easier to put it into the washer?" I asked after I finished whatever it was that I ate.

"Couldn't you have done that last week?"

"I was busy," I complained but he didn't say anything back.

I figured he was ignoring me so no matter what I said, it wouldn't change his mind. So with I sigh, I got to work.

It was pretty difficult having to stay balanced on the water while being distracted with figuring out how to clean my clothes. It took me until a little afternoon before all my clothes were drying on the rocks, including most what I was wearing. When we sat down for lunch, I was wearing my boxers and pants, which were both soaked from falling in the water so often.

"That took longer than expected," Jiraya said.

"It wouldn't have if you put them in the washer," I shot back, flopping into the sand near where he's been sitting the whole time. I was pretty sure he was facing towards me, but just to cover my tracks I laid down pretending to stare at the sky.

"Oh well, it's time for lunch anyways," he said over the rustle of plastic. "Sandwich?"

"Yes! I'm starving!"

"Alright, hold your horses," he stated as he started making the sandwiches. There was silence for a bit before shouting "Catch."

Knowing I couldn't catch it, I didn't even bother to try. Instead I waited for it to thunk into the sand on my right before picking it up.

"Why didn't you catch it?!"

"Didn't feel like it," I said as I took a bite. It tasted alright, as long as I ignored the gritty sand flavor that was clinging to it.

"So you'd rather eat a sand-covered sandwich then be bothered to catch it."

"I guess so."

"You've been hanging around the Nara lately, haven't you."

"We traveled with him a bit in the Forest of Death. Why?"

"Thought as much," he stated not answering my own question. The plastic rustled again as I can only imagine he was making his own sandwich. "Eat up, the real work starts as soon as we're done here."

"Hai, Ero-sennin," I said, eagerly taking another bite if my lunch.

We were quiet for a while we ate, giving me plenty of time to think on what Kakashi had said about coming up with a sight substitute. I had no idea how I could do this, I didn't even know if there WAS a substitute for sight. I was about halfway through my lunch when an idea hit me. I had a sensei here for a reason, he had to know something that I could use or he shouldn't be a sensei. Feeling cleaver, I turned towards where I knew he was and asked.

"Hey sensei?" he grunted in response. "Do you think there could ever be a blind ninja?"

"What? Where did that come from?" he asked, still somehow sounding surprised when speaking around his food.

"Well, when I was in the forest for the exam, I thought I couldn't see and freaked out. Kakashi said that it was a genjutsu from a jealous team so I'm alright now, but it made me curious," I said, rushing through the cover story from earlier to get to the good stuff. "I mean, what if it hadn't been a genjutsu? What if I had really went blind? Would I have still been able to be a ninja?"

"I don't know," he finally answered, after thinking on it for a few seconds. He swallowed his mouthful and continued talking. "I haven't heard of one before but, then again, I don't know everything. It's possible that a ninja existed that was blind. They would have to have their other senses be really strong or somehow come up with a way to compensate. Though, the second would be more likely unless they were blind from birth."

"But how would he do that?"

"I don't know," he said around another bite of food. "Echo location maybe."

"Echo what?"

"Echo location. It's something bats use to see in the dark. They make sounds and it bounces off their surroundings back to them so they know what it looks like."

"Cool!" I exclaimed happily. "Do you think I could do the same thing with chakra."

"Probably, but why would you want to?" he stated suspiciously, but before I could come up with an answer he did so for me. "Wait, you're going against Neji in the finals. He has the byacugan, which, if I know the Hyuugas, he's going to rely on pretty heavily. You're wondering if you can create something similar to level the playing field, aren't you?"

"Huh? Oh, yeah. You caught me," I said after a moment, his reason sounding a lot better than anything I would have come up with. "I thought it would really freak him out. It will be the best prank ever! Do you think it will work?"

"It's possible. I'd imagine you'd have to really crack down on your chakra control but I think it's do-able."

"Sweet!" I exclaimed happily, shooting to my feet. "I'm going to start right now!" I ran off towards the sound of water before realizing something important and having to run back.

"Realized you don't know how, huh," he said clearly amused. I nodded sheepishly. "You want it separate from your eye, correct?"

"Yeah."

"Ok then, this is what we'll do then," Jiraya said after a moment of thought. "You're going to need a focal point."

"A focal point?"

"A place on your body where you'll emit the chakra waves. It should probably be close to your eyes so your vantage point will be similar." He scratched his chin as he explained. "It should probably be located on your forehead or between your eyes. But it can't be hidden by anything because it might mess with your readings."

"But why does that matter now? We're just working on chakra control."

"Yes, but while we're doing that we should get your body used to emitting chakra from that spot so it will be easier later on." I nodded in understanding. "Are you going to be wearing those goggles from now on?"

"Yes, I like them."

"Ok then, the focus point should probably be right there." He poked my forehead right in the half an inch between my goggles and my hitai-ate. "Unless you'll be moving the forehead protector somewhere else."

"Nope that will work," I answered cheerfully. "How do I do this?"

"With this." There was a bit of a rustle as he obviously held up something that I couldn't see. "You have to focus your chakra and to make this leaf stick to your forehead."

"What? That's it?"

"Yes that's it," he said, obviously mocking me. "Simple but effective."

"Iruka tried to get a bunch of us to do that when we were in the academy," I said, thinking back a bit. "I thought he was crazy."

"Nope, he was actually giving you a good chakra control exercise."

"Probably shouldn't have ditched the detention then, huh?"

"Just get to work."


	11. Chapter 11

Hey everyone, happy Monday. Thanks for all the review, per usual. I'm quite excited to see so many people reading this story.

To Silvermane1: yeah, sort of. But it's more through sound and air then earth like Troph.

To Chooch77: That does sound pretty cool but I don't think it will work very well with that scene, especially since he's keeping his lack of sight a secret. I might do that later on tho so thanks for the idea :)

and to Fox's Ace: Thanks, I'm a horrible speller so I'm happy when someone points them out to me. I'll make sure to fix them when I have the chance. :)

Anyways, this one's mostly info and a little random, but hey it opens up some pretty fun doors for the future. :)

Hope you enjoy,

Trouble 1  
~~~~~~~~

! ! ! !3 HOURS LATER! ! ! !

"This isn't working!" I exclaimed angrily as I felt the leaf slip off my forehead for, what seemed to be, the millionth time that day.

"You obviously aren't trying hard enough," my sensei said, being no help what so ever.

"I am! It's just keeps falling off." I glared at where I felt the leaf land on my leg, hoping my gaze would set the damn thing on fire.

"It shouldn't be. This exercise is easier than tree climbing and water walking, you shouldn't be having any trouble with this."

"Yeah, well I am!" I could hear my sensei humming in thought as he processed this.

"Naruto, I have a theory but I'm going to need to test it out."

"Why do I have a bad feeling about this?"

"Drama queen, it's not like it's going to hurt," he huffed indignantly before continuing. "I just need you to try the water walking exercise again."

"Why?" I asked slowly. "I already did that."

"Do you want to find out what's wrong or not?"

"Fine, whatever."

I got to my feet and followed the sound of moving water towards the source. Once my toes touched the chilled liquid, I focused chakra into my feet and stepped out towards the lake. Only to fall straight through the surface. I came to the surface spitting the mineral water I didn't expect to be breathing today.

"Let me try that again."

I climbed out of the water and readied myself once again, but when I tried to walk on the water, I fell through the surface yet again. I tried this repeatedly, each time falling into the lake as if I wasn't using chakra at all.

"What the hell is this!" I demanded, once again soaked.

"Just as I thought. Something to do with your chakra control got messed up between now and lunch time."

"And how the hell can that happen in three hours?"

"Good question. I'm not sure, but whatever it is can probably be solved through meditation." I gave him a blank look, causing the man to sigh. "You do know what meditation is, right?"

"It's something to do with monks."

"Why didn't I expect this? Anyways, chakra is a mix of your physical and spiritual energies right?" I nodded. "Then it should be easy to understand that if there is a miscommunication between the two they would not work correctly. Meditation will help you find these flaws, which allows you to fix them. Do you understand now?"

"I guess."

He sighed again, sounding as if he was about to try and dumb it down even more. But before he could do so I interrupted him.

"Just tell me how to meditate already, will ya. I don't have forever you know."

"And the world doesn't revolve around you, if you haven't noticed already," Jiraya said.

"It should, my hair's twice as bright as that self-important sun."

"Do you want to know how to meditate or not?"

"If it will help." I shrugged as he grumbled about ungrateful brats.

"The trick to meditation is to be absolutely still while thinking of nothing."

"How the hell do you expect me to do that?"

"Oh yeah, you have attention problems don't you. If I read your file correctly it has something to do with excess chakra. Am I right?"

"I don't know, I never paid attention to those boring doctors."

"That's a yes then."

There was an uncomfortable silence as I fidgeted in place. I guess he was thinking but not hearing anything coming from his direction made me nervous. After about thirty seconds of this, I'd finally had enough.

"So, how does this meditation thingy work if I can't even focus for ramen?"

"Try to work through it. You might not be able to keep your attention normally, but you're also the most stubborn kid I've seen so far." For a moment, I tried to figure out if this was a complement or an insult but decided that it didn't really matter. "Since as of right now, your chakra control problems are more important than your attention issues, I'm sure you can overcome it."

"I thought you said not to focus on anything."

"Relatively. You either focus on one thing or nothing."

"I guess I can try." I scratched my head in thought.

"Then let's get started then," he said, almost excited. "Sit cross legged, close our eyes, and focus on chakra control."

"Is that all?"

"To start with, yes. By doing so you should be able to tune out the real world until you're not even aware of it anymore. At this point, you'll enter what's called your Mindscape, if you do it right, that is. From there you will have to look around and find what's wrong."

"And how will I know what's wrong?" I asked, my mind still trying to catch up with him.

"You just will," was the only answer I got. "As long as you don't fall asleep."

"I won't, datteboyo!" I settled into the cross-legged position, closed my eyes, and tried to focus

! ! ! !TWO HOURS LATER! ! ! !

I now had three sore lumps on my head from where Jiraya hit me for falling asleep. I've no idea how he could tell the difference, though it might have something to do with waking up with my face in the sand.

Regardless, I was having trouble doing what Ero-sannin had suggested. I just couldn't keep my thoughts focused on what I needed to. I sighed and tried to focus again, despite how troublesome it was, it needed to be done.

I sat there for a couple minutes, trying and failing quite miserably. I was just wondering if I'd be able to con Jiraya into more ramen when I felt my body pitch forward. My eyes snapped open on reflex as I tumbled towards the ground. There was a flash of color before my face made contact with water. It wasn't the mineral water that I had tasted most of the day yesterday, it was foul and felt almost slimy to the touch.

I shot to my feet, sputtering as I attempted to get the taste out of my mouth. I was trying to physically wipe it away when I noticed something.

I could see.

It was a dark sewer-like place, but I could _see_ it. I could see the murky waters whose taste I was trying to scrape off my toungue. I could see the brick walls surrounding me. I could see… a large cage at the end of the corridor that probably shouldn't be there.

Once I got over my excitement, my curiosity then took over, I waded through the ankle-deep water towards the cage. When I was closer, I saw a pair of glowing red eyes glaring at me. I stopped short, trying to figure out what it could be.

"**Hurry up. I don't have all day,"** a deep, rumbling voice grumbled from behind the bars. Startled, I stepped back. **"Wrong way."**

"Why should I get any closer?"

"**What am I going to do, eat you? Sorry but you humans taste disgusting. Too many cosmetics." **This didn't make me want to get any closer. I mean, yeah he said we taste nasty but that means he still ate one. **"Oh stop being a coward already. We have things to discuss."**

"I don't even know who you are!"

"**I knew you were an idiot but I didn't think you were this bad,"** his voice grumbled, extremely annoyed. **"Seriously, how many voices do you have in your head?"**

"I didn't think I had _any_!"

"**Did you really think I wouldn't show up in your mindscape? No wonder this place is a dump."**

"Wait, this is my mindscape?"

"**Yes, it is."**

"So I did that meditation thing correctly!"

"**Nope, I got tired of waiting and brought you here." **I moped a while, not liking that I failed at something. **"Are you done yet?"**

"Why do you care? I thought I finally did it only to find out you did it for me!" I looked at him curiously, just realizing something. "Who are you again?"

"**Oh, come on! I'm the damn Kyuubi you disrespectful little human!"**

"The Kyuubi?!" I stepped back again in surprise.

"**Yes, I'm the nine-tailed fox. So stop moving away, unless you don't trust the Fourth's handy work."**

"I trust it."

"**Then what are you scared of? It's not like I'm going anywhere."**

"I guess," I said, taking slow steps closer to the cage.

Once I was about two yards away from the door, I stopped and studied the being behind the gate. He was obviously a fox, except I don't think I ever saw a fox three stories tall. His nine tails flicked behind him as he glared back at me. He was also completely covered in dark red fur. He laid on the ground, not even bothered by the water.

"**Are we going to talk or are you going to stare at me all day?" **the fox asked flatly.

"I'm not the one that wanted to talk!"

"**You wanted to see if there's a glitch holding back your chakra control, right?"** I nodded wearily. **"Same thing really."**

"How could chakra control and you be the same thing?"

"**Think about it." **I gave him a confused look that earned a tired sigh from him. **"Hint, from here, I can mess with a lot of different stuff."**

"Wait," I said slowly. My mind thought rapidly, ignoring the Kyuubi saying something about smelling bacon. "Did you mess with my chakra control?"

"**Took less time than I thought it would," **he muttered to himself. **"But yes, I did."**

"Why the hell did you do that?!"

"**We need to talk and the best way to do that would be to get you to meditate."**

"But you brought me here."

"**Which I wouldn't have been able to do if you weren't at least trying."**

"Really?"

"**Well, I guess I could call you over when you were sleeping but you'd think it was just a dream."**

"Probably." I looked around the sewer-like setting, just happy I could see it. "So, what are we talking about now?"

"**I have a proposition for you." **I turned back towards the Kyuubi, studying him suspiciously.

"If you're trying to convince me to let you out…"

"**No, I'm well aware that won't happen,"** he said with an annoyed sigh. **"Instead I want to see outside."**

"…How?"

"**Through your senses."**

"You want to tap into my senses to see outside?"

"**That's what I said, wasn't it?"**

"I'm blind."

"**I know that, you idiot kit!" **he said with a huff. **"I want to know what's happening outside through you're remaining senses."**

"Why?" I asked slowly, not trusting the fox as far as I could throw him. And since I can't throw a 30 ft tall animal, well you get the idea.

"**Look around kit, this isn't the most interesting place to be stuck for a lifetime. At least being allowed to experience what you're experiencing won't be as boring."**

"Can't I just change the mindscape?"

"**Nope, this place personifies your experiences in life. You, yourself, have no control over it."**

"What happens if I do let you?"

"**The seal will be a tad weaker but with me trapped into your mind, your senses will be sharper-"**

"They are already pretty sharp for some reason."

"**That's the result of my chakra leaking into your system. If I'm in your mind, I can influence them directly and make it so you can hear a pin drop from half a mile away, feel inked words on a page, even smell your beloved ramen shop from the gates of the village. It will be confusing for a while but you'll get used to it."**

"What about Sakura's shouting? It already hurts my ears!"

"**Oh you're up a creek on that one. I'd just avoid her completely."**

"Why would you do this? Increase my senses just for a glimpse of the world outside."

"**I told you, I'm bored. That and the way you're going now, you'll die on your next mission. I don't feel like dying anytime soon and in order to avoid that, my vessel needs to be strong."**

"So, you're doing this for yourself," I answered flatly.

"**Of course, you humans aren't worth my time. I wouldn't be helping you if it didn't benefit me somehow."**

"But-"

"**Let me phrase it this way. You're already an idiot so if you remain weak from this, even if we **_**don't **_**end up dying, I'll be the laughing stock of the byjuus. I am the most powerful of them all, having a weak vessel would be an insult."**

"You really are self-centered, aren't you."

"**I'm a demon, what did you expect?" **He gave me this exasperated look before continuing. **"So, are you going to let me in or not?"**

"You could escape, couldn't you?"

"**Not really but I'll promise not to try if it makes you feel any better."**

"I should believe you because…?"

"**You oblivious, insolent kit. I'm a byjuu. Even if I wanted to lie I couldn't."**

"Why not?"

"**The Rikudo Sennin knew our chakra would make us thirst for power. If left alone we would take over you mortals through trickery. So, to allow you furless monkeys to retain your freedom, he made it so we could not lie."**

"What does that have to do with not lying?"

"**So nieve. Do you really think any leader does not have an ulterior motive? You can't rule a country on truth alone. Also, it made it so we could not trick you as easily."**

"But you can still trick people."

"**Right, twisting a few words here and there, making it seem like something other than what I'm really saying."**

"How do I know you're not fooling me now?"

"**Because if I was I'd make it seem like I could give you your sight back. But I can't do that."**

"Oh." I thought for a moment, debating on whether I wanted to act on the idea coming to mind. "How good are you at twisting the truth?"

"**I've had hundreds of years of practice kit, I'm the best."**

"If I do this for you, I want you to teach me how to do that." The damn fox scoffed at the idea.

"**Do you really expect me to go along with this?"**

"Yes, unless you don't want to know what happens outside till I die of old age." I earned a glare as he thought through it seriously this time.

"**Why do you want to learn this, and from me no less?"**

"Because I'm a horrible liar. I can be seen through like a window!"

"**That's for sure."**

"So, if I can't lie, maybe I can do what you do. If not, they're going to find me out fairly quickly."

"**You're already doing it, not to my level but you have the basics. Distraction, engaging emotions, even acting like an idiot is all fairly good tactics, for you at least."** He sat there in silence for a moment, trying to decide. **"Well, I suppose I could teach you. I didn't think the small senses boost would convince you anyways."**

"Seriously? Arigato!"

"**Yeah, yeah. Whatever. Just put some chakra through the seal in front of you and it will lessen itself."** I nodded and stepped forward and placed my hand on the seal with a small amount of chakra in it. **"Good, that's enough. Anymore and the warden will show up."**

"Warden?"

"**You'll meet him eventually, I assume. Well, thanks, I suppose. You can leave now."**

"Wait, I can't meditate. How can you teach me if I can't meditate!" A creepy grin spread across his face making me almost sorry I asked.

"**You'll see. Now get out." **A wind blew through the passage, throwing me through a pair of double doors that appeared.


	12. Chapter 12

Hey everyone. Again thanks for the reviews. And the regular views too...I think I've got over 20,000 on this story alone, which is awesome! Anyways, I'm going to try a new thing with the review responses and just do so directly instead of wasting valuable space here. The reason I haven't done this before is because I can be a bit of an idiot so I didn't realize it was possible until now. So, I'm going to try that now. I haven't decided if I'm going to wait and do the responses on Mondays when I post the new chapters, so just keep an eye out.

Anyways, Hope you enjoy,

Trouble 1  
~~~~~~~~

I opened my eyes, my mood crushed as the black void stared me down once again. It was about then that the world around me became amplified. I could smell the grass in the field as if I was laying in it, I could hear birds in the forest. I almost literally felt every piece of sand digging into my back. The fox wasn't kidding when they said my senses were a lot stronger. Especially considering there wasn't a hint of a forest or meadow when I passed out.

"Naruto! Are you alright?"

Hands grabbed onto my shoulders, shaking me to get my attention. He sounded extremely loud, and somewhat worried, which probably had something to do with the fact that I was now on the ground.

"Shush," I whispered despite my ears claiming otherwise. According to them I was almost shouting.

"Don't you shush me, gaki! And why are you whispering?"

"Because you're too damn loud."

"I was talking normally."

"And it's too loud."

"Fine, how's this?" His voice dropped to an acceptable level, about the same as mine. I nodded and sat up so I was sitting cross-legged. "Now tell me what happened."

"Well, the Kyuubi was blocking my chakra control, which is what you suspected, right?" There was a small swoosh of hair that I would have never heard before my new hearing. I assumed that he was nodding so I continued. "Well, he did it to get my attention. Apparently he wanted to gain access to my senses."

"Why would he want that?" My sensei sounded worried, but was trying not to let me know. For this reason, I was starting to like these new senses.

"Why does anyone do anything? He was bored."

"Naruto, people don't do stuff because they're bored."

"Really?"

"Yes, there are reasons other than boredom."

"But if the world was never bored, they wouldn't think of other things to do. Heck war probably wouldn't even exist because no one would be bored enough to start anything."

"So, your plan for world peace is to keep everyone entertained?"

"Yep."

"I don't want to know how you came up with that," he muttered to himself. "Anyways, back to what happened."

"Ok, well he was bored so he wanted to see, and hear, what was happening so it wasn't so boring. In return he gave me my control back as well as heightened senses."

"So that's why we're whispering."

"Yea." I decided to purposely leave the secondary deal out of my explanation. It would be best if he didn't know I was being taught by him.

"That's all? Heightened senses and chakra control for a view of the outside world? Seems a little unequal."

"**He's right, you know." **I shrieked as I looked around for the owner of the voice before remembering I couldn't see anything to begin with. **"Totally unfair on my part. Though your reaction might have just leveled the scales for me."**

"What the hell?!" I exclaimed, finding myself on my feet. I tried to ignore my own volume, intent on figuring out what the heck just happened.

"**Quiet down. Not only is it a literal pain, but you're making a spectacle of yourself."**

"You didn't tell me about this!"

"**You didn't ask."**

"You should have told me!"

"**And miss out seeing this? I think not."**

"Naruto? Are you alright over there?" Jiraya must have thought I was losing my mind at this point.

"Yes, I'm fine, or as fine as I can be now that the Kyuubi can talk in my mind."

"He's speaking in your mind," Jiraya said slowly.

"Yes, and he's annoying!"

"**Oh, and you're not?"**

"I'm not talking to you!" There was a strained silence outside my head as that damn fox laughed on the inside.

"How much did you loosen that thing?!"

"Not enough to call the warden," I spoke meekly.

"What the hell does that mean? Oh, never mind. Just show me the seal." I nodded and channeled chakra into the seal. He thought for a while before he spoke again. "Well, you didn't break it, that's good. There's no extra byju chakra in your system either. The only thing you changed was opening a passage to your mind so he can access it. Best advice I have for you is to ignore him and not let him convince you of anything."

"**Damn, there goes my plan to have you to take over Konoha for a bowl of Ramen. I'd probably work better than a Klondike bar."**

"What?! I wouldn't do that! Even if there _is _ramen!"

"**How about for **_**two **_**bowls of ramen?"**

"NO!"

"**Three?"**

"I thought you said you couldn't lie!"

"**Your point? I wasn't lying. I thought about it for about thirty seconds until I figured your damn conscience would get in the way. Or I couldn't get enough ramen to bribe you."**

"Both!"

"**You know, you can talk to me **_**without**_** physically speaking , right?"**

I gawked as Jiraya tried to get my attention but was failing.

"Why didn't you tell me this BEFORE?!"

"**Because watching you make a fool of yourself is the highlight of my day."**

"_If I ever meet the forth I'm going to slug him for making me put up with you," _I thought not thinking he could hear me. I was wrong.

"**I am defiantly bringing popcorn for that." **I was about to say something in response when I was shook out of my thought.

"Naruto!" Jiraya shouted, giving me a shake as if to wake me up. I was starting to get used to the volume but I still stumbled back and covered my ears.

"Itai! Damn it sensei! Don't be so loud!" I winced at the volume of my own voice. "Damn it, I don't need to be so loud either."

"What the hell was that?" His volume was lower but I could still hear the concern in his voice.

"Kyuubi being an ass."

"Are you sure you're alright with this?"

"Oh yeah, I'm fine. Though I might go crazy before I get to fight Neji."

"**If you do, my job will be complete." **I paused debating on whether to confront him now but deciding against it. That wasn't the time for such things.

"But don't worry, I'm going to ignore him. A lot."

"**You can try."**

"Are we done for today?" I asked Jiraya, trying to get off the topic.

"We still have several hours left of daylight and you want to stop NOW?"

"Yep. My senses are going crazy. I don't think I'd be able to focus even if I wanted to."

"I suppose giving you the rest of the day to get used to them will be alright. Be ready by eight tomorrow morning."

"Sounds good."

I turned to leave only to trip over something, sending me sprawled face first into the sand. I tried to scramble to my feet but ended up catching my foot again before I was even up. I sat up slowly, spitting sand out of my mouth. I was sure that Ero-sannin figured out my secret by that stunt alone. There was no other way for him to interpret it.

"Geesh gaki, if your senses are that warped, you could have just said so." I blinked.

"Huh?"

"So distracted you forgot your clothes and can't even walk straight." I heard his feet walk away through the sand, pick something up, and walk back. Before I could figure out what he picked up, I got hit with a pile of fabric. "Get your shirt on and I'll take you home."

"Seriously?" I felt more surprised that he didn't figure it out than the fact he was solving my problem for me.

"What? You think I'm just going to leave you there? I'm not that cruel." He huffed in annoyance as he headed away again.

I stayed still for a moment listening to what he was doing, which sounded like he was putting something away. This meant he wasn't watching me so, if I was quick, I could put the rest of my, still damp, clothes on before he could see my process.

I quickly felt through the clothes and found one of my tee-shirt. I then figured out which way it went and put it on. Once my arms were in the right spots, I felt a bit excited for my success even if the shirt felt a bit strange.

"**It's strange because it's on backwards."**

"Damn," I whispered before slipping my arms out and turned the shirt around so it was correct.

"Ok, let's go," Jiraya said from in front of me. I sat there confused for a moment as I tried to figure out what was going on. "Are you coming or would you rather walk back yourself?"

"Wait, you're going to carry me?"

"It's better than you getting distracted and walking into a tree."

"Again."

"Again? Oh, never mind. I don't want to know. Just get up already." I nodded, getting to my feet and climbed onto his back.

"Thanks Ero-sannin."

"Yeah, don't get used to it," he muttered to me. "I'm not going to do this again."

"If you say so." I smirked as he started walking, already planning ways to get him to do this again. I would need several of them if I was to have a way home every day.

"**Just work yourself to exhaustion every day, you're good at that."**

"_Good idea," _I thought back, earning an exaggerated sigh from Kyuubi.

"**I was mocking you, baka."**

"_I know, but it's still a good idea." _I could heard him grumbling to himself in my mind. I grinned happily at the thought that I annoyed him for a change.

!20 MINUTES LATER!

"Here ya go Gaki." Jiraya placed me on the ground and handed me my laundry basket. "I'm sure you can get up the stairs yourself."

"Yeah, I'll be fine from here. Arigato Ero-sannin."

"See you tomorrow, I'm off to do some research." The way he said 'research' made it sound like something perverted.

"Is that what you were doing yesterday?"

"Um…I'm going to leave now." There was a 'poof' indicating his departure, making me sigh.

"Why does everyone shinshun away when I'm talking?"

"**They can't get away from you fast enough on foot." **I felt a tick mark appear as I started chanting something about ignoring him.

I calmed down a bit and started moving forward towards where I thought was the stairs. I was just wondering how I was going to find them then my foot banged into something, almost sending me and my clothes to the ground.

"Found them," I muttered. I glared as I tried to ignore the laughter echoing through my head. "Shut up."

I struggled up the stairs, trying to remember how many steps there were but despite having climbed is thousands of times, I couldn't remember. I ran my hand up the railing, starting to count the steps for future reference. Unfortunately it didn't do any good because I lost count half way through due to the fox shouting random numbers close to the one I was at.

"Damn it!" I exclaimed as I tripped on the missing step. Apparently the staircase ended sooner than I thought. "Now I have to count again."

"**Sucks to be you."**

"What's your problem?" I demanded as I dragged my basket against the wall again.

"**Problem? I didn't know I was the one with the problem. You're the one talking to yourself after all." **I glared as I walked towards my apartment. It was the third door so I didn't need to count much. **"What would your neighbors think?"**

"Well, if I had neighbors they'd probably think I was crazy but thanks to you no one wants to live near a demon."

"**Kit, you're no demon. You couldn't be even if you tried. Too soft hearted."**

"Thank kami for that," I muttered. Finding my door, I opened it and somehow tripped over the threshold, sending my clothes flying as I landing on wooden floor. I didn't bother to move as I continued questioning the fox. "But seriously, why are you tormenting me so badly? Do you really hate me that much?"

"**My freedom was taken from me under false pretenses, what do you think?"**

"But the Fourth did that not me."

"**Yes, but a prisoner hates the bars that hold him as much as the man that put there."**

"I guess that makes sense," I said after a moment. "But still, there are a million different ways you could show it. Out of all of them, why did you choose pranking, it's kinda immature."

"**You're one to talk."**

"I'm 12. Pranking is in my job description. You're hundreds of years old, what's your excuse."

"**There's a reason why all your human folklore contain trickster fox demons. It's what we do, and I haven't pranked anyone in about a hundred years. Needless to say, I've missed it."**

"Let me get this straight, you're pranking me because you can't prank anyone else."

"**That's about it."**

"And there's nothing I can do about it."

"**Not a thing."**

I was quiet for a moment as I thought.

"What if I start pranking again?"

"**Idiot, how's that supposed to work?"**

"You can experience what I am doing right? So wouldn't that mean if I'm pranking someone then, for the most part, you would be too?" There was silence on the other end of the line, making me think that I was wrong when…

"**Son of a bitch," **he cursed loudly. **"Why didn't I think of this!?"**

"Because I'm awesome."

"**You're lucky, that's all," **he murmured angrily. **"So, I get my prank fix, you get to do the pranking, and the not-so-innocent third party you will most likely target will get what they deserve. I guess that's what you call a triple win scenario."**

"So it will work?"

"**Only if the pranks are high quality, not paint buckets over the door or itching powder down someone's shirt. Those are all academy student tricks that don't even deserve to be called a prank. I will only accept fantastically orchestrated works of art. At least once a week."**

"That's a lot!"

"**I suppose I could assist you as needed. Just watching isn't much fun anyways."**

"Sounds good I guess, but I'm allowed that consecutive license thing, right?"

"**Creative license, and yes, as long as you earn it. They don't just give those things away you know."**

"I guess there's only one question left. Who's first?"

Both of us were silent as we tried to figure out who deserved our first 'come back' prank. There were many different choices, but none of them seemed worthy of this first one. Well, until there came a knock on the door.

"Uzumaki Naruto! I know you're in there!" the voice called between bangs on the door. "Still avoiding training I see! How are you supposed to learn anything if you avoid your sensei?!"

"_Ebisu?"_ I asked silently, earning a throaty chuckle from my tenant. A sly smile spread across my face

"**He will do."**

!10 MINUTES LATER!

"Sensei?" Sarutobi looked up from his paperwork to see his student sitting in the open window.

"Jiraya, will you stop using my window as a door. There _is _a difference," he chastised as he turned back to the papers in front of him.

"Difference? I don't see one. The only difference I see is that the window is always open." He grinned as he jumped down from the ledge. "But I'm here for more serious matters."

"What's that?" he asked condescendingly. "And if it's about that proposition to make all bathhouses co-ed then I'm going to ask if we do this another time. I'm actually quite busy."

"No, it's about Naruto." This got his attention, making him look up from his desk and even set down his pen. "You know I'm training him, right?"

"I'm aware."

"Well, his chakra system got messed up today for no reason, so I had him do some meditation, thinking the Kyuubi was behind it."

"Was it?"

"Yes, now Naruto has made a deal with the fox to get it back along with enhanced senses."

"And what possessed him to think this is a good idea?"

"I have no idea."

"Then we should keep a really good eye on him in case the seal weakens."

"I will, but I wasn't finished yet." Sarutobi raised an eyebrow. "This deal made it so the Kyuubi can now converse with him mentally."

There was silence in the room as he thought this through.

"Are you joking?"

"No. The byjuu isn't manipulating him directly, just tormenting him and seems to enjoy it, if Naruto's reactions say anything."

"Well, I suppose it could be worse," the hokage said as he sat back in his chair and thought. "If he's actually conversing with him, even in a tormenting manor, then he's not as out of control as he was twelve years ago. This could be a good thing."

"I don't see how sensei."

"With Naruto's habit of turning enemies into friends, he might just befriend the Kyuubi. That would make things a lot easier."

"Yes, but wouldn't it make Naruto more inclined to listening to it as well? The byju could make him do something horrible by convincing him it was a good thing."

"I doubt Naruto is that susceptible." Just as he finished saying that they heard a tortured scream from the village. They spun around to stare out the window, appalled at what they saw.

Down in the streets Ebisu was running through the village with a copy of what looked like Icha Icha Paradise stuck to his hands. He was so obsessed with trying to remove the book that he didn't seem to notice the paper saying "I'M A PERVERT" that was attached to his back, or the "KICK ME" sign right under it.

Neither of the two men had to wonder why he was running as they saw the group of irate women chasing after him with a variety of different makeshift weapons. In the front of this mob was an orange clad, pigtailed blond with familiar whisker marks that was leading the charge while standing in a cart that was being pulled by Konohamaru and his two friends.

"You were saying?" Jiraya asked as the impromptu parade made its way through the village, picking up more participants as it went.

"That you should keep a really good eye on him just in case," he thought for a moment as Ebisu tripped over a sign in the road and ended up getting caught by the group. "And don't give him a reason to do that to you."

"Will do."


	13. Chapter 13

Hey everyone, it's Monday again. Just so you guys know, you're awesome. This story had 20,000 view last week and it now has almost 25,000. That's fantastic! Thanks :) Also, thanks for the reviews. Any spelling mistakes will be fixed eventually. As soon as I have the time to go through it. Promise. I've also decided definitively that responses to reviews will be given out on Mondays as well. I've been pretty busy and it's just a lot easier to get everything done in one day.

Hope you enjoy,

Trouble 1  
~~~~~~~~

! ! ! !THE NEXT DAY! ! ! !

"Get up," I heard Jiraya state as the covers disappeared from by bed. "You're late again."

"Five more minutes," I murmured back, rolling over to face the wall.

"No, you're getting up now." Before I knew it, I was pulled off my bed by my shirt. The short tumble to the ground woke me up quick.

"What the hell!" I demanded, sitting up.

"You're late and you sleep like a rock," he stated as footsteps began to lead out of the room. "Seriously? You wear those goggles to bed?"

"Forgot about them," I said, scratching the back of my head as my drowsiness started kicking back in.

"Get dressed, we're leaving in five. And don't say you're already dressed, I don't care what you wear to bed but you're wearing clean clothes to training, is that clear?"

"Yeah."

"And you better be ready to train today because you're not getting out early this time." I was just trying to figure out where my clothes were when his footsteps stopped. "Why are your clothes in the living room?"

"I dropped them," I said, walking towards the door only to catch my shoulder on door frame.

"Are you somehow incapable of walking straight in the mornings? You can't be that tired."

"What did you expect?" I muttered, making my way towards where he was.

"Maybe that my student would be a little more bright eyed and bushy tailed," he answered as I got to the living room.

"Train a squirrel."

"Huh?"

I didn't say anything else as I found my clothes and dragged the basket back down the hallway towards my room. I could hear him muttering something about disrespectful brats as he rummaged through my kitchen. Once I was back I searched through the clothes to find a shirt, pants, and a jacket. When I finally found one of each I thought briefly about taking a shower but decided to save that inevitable torture for later today. At least then there wouldn't be anyone here to witness me fumbling with the knobs.

So I got dressed, happy for once that the jumpsuits were all the same so I didn't have to explain why nothing matched. It was still hard to figure out what was what but at least it was getting easier. I figured out that if I can just find the tags on the fabric I can ensure that I'm at least putting everything on straight and right-side-out.

After zipping up my coat I started shuffling back towards the kitchen. I pretended to be slightly more tired than I was to keep the clumsy excuse as long as I could.

"Here," Jiraya said grumpily. I heard something go flying before a rectangle object connected with my face and dropped to the ground at my feet. He sighed. "Eat it and we'll leave. If you're crippling exhaustion isn't cured by that then I'm going to have to shove coffee down your throat."

"You don't want to do that," I told him as I grabbed my granola bar and sat at the kitchen table. "It makes me hyper."

"Never mind then," he said after a moment of thought. "Oh and this was on your doorstep, I think it says it's from Kakashi."

Something plastic was placed on the table before being slid across the surface towards me. I held my hand out to where I thought it was coming only to have to hide my excitement when it actually connected. I held it up in front of my eyes, pretending to examine it as I ran my fingers around the box.

It was a plastic square about three inches with a thick piece of paper tied to it. I ran my thumb over the paper, figuring that there was something written on it that I couldn't see. I was just debating whether to be mad with him when I felt letters indented into said paper. I wasn't sure what it said but I really couldn't decipher it now with Jiraya here. Setting the box aside, I picked my breakfast back up and began eating it.

"Aren't you going to open it?"

"Later," I answered around a bite of granola bar.

"It's not inappropriate is it?" he asked, his tone suddenly serious. I swallowed my food as I thought of what to say.

"Like what?" I tried to look confused, like I felt, but with the Kyuubi laughing in the background it was kinda hard to do so. "Never mind, I don't think I want to know. Here."

I slid the box back across the table, glad to hear it tap into his hand a few seconds later.

"You open it."

"I will then." His fingers made a slight sound as he picked up the box. I could hear him fiddling with the paper for a moment before he spoke. "The note says that 'I heard about your training. This should help keep you on time.' Huh, whatever it is, he probably re-gifted it."

There was a sound of plastic sliding against plastic before one piece clanked onto the table.

"It's a watch," Jiraya said after a moment of silence.

"A watch?"

"Yeah a watch. A plain old watch." Another, heavier piece of plastic tapped onto the table before a rustle of paper was heard. It was quiet again as he no doubt read whatever was on it then whistling in an impressed tone. "You know how I said it was plain?"

"Yeah?"

"Forget I said that. This thing is not plain. It's basically a mobile alarm clock." He paused like he was reading a little further. "It has a settable alarm of course, a stop watch, it even vibrates once every hour instead of beeping."

"Why would it do that?" I asked in fake curiosity.

"You're a ninja, idiot. If you're hiding you don't want your watch to give you away with a beep. It even has raised numbers so you can check the time without looking at it. You know, in case it's dark where you're hiding."

"How do you know that's what it's used for?"

"Says so in the instructions. Anyways, that sensei of yours spoils you, kid."

"Nah, he's probably trying to make up for the fact he couldn't train me this month."

"Couldn't he have just treated you to ramen?"

"You haven't seen how much of that stuff I can eat have you?" I took the late bite out of my breakfast and crumbled up the wrapper. "I'd bet the watch was cheaper."

"That can't be possible."

"You wanna test it?" I asked eagerly, forgetting to act tired at the possibility of ramen. He must have seen my sly grin and reconsidered.

"No thanks."

"Damn, so close."

"Alright, you seem to be awake enough now," Jiraya said, his chair creaking as he got to his feet. "Let's go so we can get started."

"What are we doing today?"

"If I told you you'd run." I suddenly had an uneasy feeling as he shunshined us away to the training grounds. Somehow I knew this was going to turn out to be something closer to a torture session then a day of training.

! ! ! A FEW DAYS LATER! ! ! !

"WHY?!" I demanded as I laid on the ground, too exhausted to move. "Why do you torture me?"

"Because I can," Jiraya said with an audible smirk.

"**Because it's fun," **the Kyuubi piped up happily.

"_You didn't even do anything!"_

"**I haven't? Well I guess I'm going to have to change that."**

I groaned as I heard him start to plot things that he could do to join in on the torture.

"But seriously," Jiraya stated. "This will really help you."

"How was trying to keep five leaves stuck to my forehead supposed to fix a jutsu that doesn't work!?"

"There's nothing wrong with the mechanics of the jutsu. It should work, so the problem must be with you. And, since your chakra control is still garbage, I figured that was the missing link."

"Did it have to be done sitting on the lake?"

"Yes, again you need to work on your control."

"And the weights around my ankles? What were they for, other than trying to drown me that is!"

"It would be too easy without them."

"Whatever, I'm hungry."

"You're always hungry," he grumbled.

"I'm a growing boy. Aren't I supposed to be?"

"Fine, take this," With a sigh, I heard him fumble with his pocket for a moment before something went flying towards me.

Deciding to experiment a bit, I reached my arm into the air where I thought it would be. This time when the rectangle shaped parcel hit my hand I couldn't resist the cheer came out.

"Why are you cheering?" Jiraya asked, making me freeze.

I had no idea what I was going to tell him, my mind was completely blank of excuses. It shouldn't be, I've been coming up with excuses all along, but now there was absolutely nothing. What other reason could I have for cheering other than the real one?

"**Isn't this why you wanted my help?"** the Kyuubi asked slyly.

"_Oh yeah! What do I do?"_

"**Call me the Great Kyuubi-sama and I might help you."**

"_This isn't time to joke around!"_

"**Who said I'm joking?" **There was a mental silence between them as I tried to figure out what he was playing at.

"_You can't be serious! I'm not doing that!"_

"**Looks like you're sensei is starting to get suspicious. I think you've been quiet too long, Kit. At this rate he might figure it out for himself."**

"_Fine! Great Kyuubi-sama, what the hell do I do?!"_

"**Not bad, but we'll have to work on the amount of sarcasm for next time."**

"_I'm glad you're pleased, now help!"_

"**Tell him you had your eyes closed and were experimenting with your new senses."**

"_That's all?"_

"**Lesson one, keep it simple and as close to the truth as possible."**

"Naruto." Jiraya's voice sounded closer than before. "Are you even there?"

"Uh, yeah," I answered, thinking back on what the Kyuubi had just said, I figured out what to say next. "The Kyuubi was being a jerk again. He wanted me to call him the Great Kyuubi-sama." I shook my head in a disapproving manor. "Did you ask me something ero-senin?"

"**I'm offended, and slightly impressed."**

I hid a grin as Jiraya asked his question again.

"I was wondering why you were cheering. I don't like being left out of the loop, especially if it's about something good."

"I caught the food," I answered, placing said object on my chest for safe keeping.

"Still not seeing the point."

"I didn't open my eyes. I wanted to see how good my hearing was, and judging by the fact I was able to catch it, it's pretty damn good."

"You picked up the sound of it going through the air right?"

"Yeah, it's a faint sound, but it's there. Everything makes a sound if you listen hard enough."

"Impressive."

I nodded a bit as I opened the granola bar and took a bite.

"Thanks," I said with my mouth full.

Jiraya hummed in acknowledgement as I continued eating. I was just finishing and was starting to doze off when my watch vibrated once to indicate the time.

"Well, I believe that was your watch saying it's five o'clock," Jiraya said, sand crunching as he climbed to his feet. "That means we're done for today. See you here at eight o'clock sharp. Got that?"

I nodded tiredly, listening to the faint woosh of him shinshuning away. It wasn't until a leaf from the technique landed on my nose that a thought hit me. I shot up straight, suddenly awake as I listened hard, hoping he was still in the area because I had no idea where I was. But that wasn't what worried me. What worried me was that I had no idea how to get home.

"Kuso!" I swore, flopping back into the sand angrily when I didn't hear anything. "What am I supposed to do now? I'm stuck at this beach, with no way home!"

I layed there silently, listening to the calm noises that surrounded me, noises that I never would have heard before.

"Well, I guess it's not that bad. The sand's soft and warm, and I can always continue my training if I'm bored." Suddenly the calming sounds I was hearing were interrupted by my stomach growling loudly despite the granola bar. This lead me to another realization that ruined everything. "Damn it! I don't have any food!"

! ! ! !THE NEXT MORNING! ! ! !

Jiraya made his way to the beach, hoping that the gaki would be on time for once. He didn't have much faith though. After all, in the week he's been training him, the boy always had to be picked up in order to get him there.

He had the feeling that the pint sized ninja was doing this on purpose for whatever reason. He didn't want to even pretend he knew why, trying to understand that boy was like trying to understand why the sky was blue. He was sure someone could but he himself didn't have the patience to figure it out.

Much to his surprise Naruto was there when he arrived five minutes before eight. He was lying in the sand in almost the exact position he left him in last night, except he was completely asleep.

Jiraya was just trying to figure out why the boy was here so early when he noticed that his clothes were damp. Not like he had jumped in the lake fully clothed, but more like he had been laying there so long that the dew settled on him. Which would mean that the blond never went home.

"Hey gaki," Jiraya said, trying to wake him up with an accompanying nudge of his foot. When he didn't respond, he lightly jabbed his toes between the boy's ribs, making him shoot upright.

"I don't want a pink jumpsuit!" he exclaimed, still half asleep.

"Gaki, what are you doing here?" Naruto turned towards his sensei, staring at him blankly for a while before the question seemed to register.

"Huh?" Jiraya shook his head, assuming he was wrong about the registering part.

"Why are you sleeping on the beach?"

"I was tired," he muttered in response.

"How long were you sleeping here?"

"Don't know. How long were you gone?"

"You spent the night here?!"

"It's morning already?" Naruto mused as he stared up at the sky. He acquired a surprised look for a moment before continuing, sounding a little more awake. "Uh, I mean, yeah. Yeah, I did."

"Why?"

"Why what?"

"Why did you sleep here?"

"I was tired."

"Stop messing around!" Jiraya demanded, knocking the brat over the head. "You're avoiding the question."

"Fine," Naruto grumbled as rubbed his head grumpily. "I couldn't find my way home."

"Did your apartment move since you were last there?"

"No, but I've never had to walk home after training so I don't know how to get there from here." His watch chose that moment to vibrate, demanding the blond's attention. He glanced down at the face, rubbing a thumb over tit almost adoringly as he began talking again. "I've been stuck here for fifteen hours with only that granola bar for food. It was horrible! I almost ate my jacket but it tasted horrible so I stopped."

"You're kidding."

"I don't joke around about food," the boy answered as he flopped back into the sand. "Though, on the plus side I was able to train a bit more. I can now sit on the lake for about 20 minutes with six leaves on my forehead. Nice, huh? Still can't get that jutsu to work though."

Jiraya didn't answer as he stared at the boy. How could he forget Naruto never walked home on his own? For a week now he carried him back to his small apartment, grumbling the whole way.

With a sigh, he rooted through his pocket and found a few granola bars.

"Here kid, eat this," he said as he dropped them on the boy. He barely twitched, only glancing at them before flopping back into the sand.

"Seriously? I've been starving all night and this is all I get?" the boy said, making Jiraya wince a bit.

"Eat this now, and I'll buy you ramen after."

"Fine," he muttered, finally sitting up and grabbing one of the bars. "But I better get at least ten bowls out of this."

"Get you jutsu working and I'll pay for fifteen."

"Hai Ero-Senin!"

! ! ! !SEVERAL HOURS LATER! ! ! !

"Oh glorious ramen, how I've missed you!" I exclaimed as I latched on to the counter dramatically. _"You were right, it _did _work!"_

"**Of course it worked," **the Kyuubi said. **"I told you before, invoking an emotional response makes them easier to manipulate. Guilt is one of the best to use in something like this."**

"_I'll keep that in mind."_

"**Just don't let them know you're guilt tripping them or it will backfire. Though I will admit, the jacket statement was a nice touch, it's not something I'd use but still."**

"_Thanks!" _ I exclaimed happily. My smile widened as I let go of the countertop and sat down correctly. As if sensing my happiness at being praised, Kyuubi spoke again.

"**That doesn't mean you can slack off, you need a lot of work kit before you have even a fraction of the skill I have."**

"_Yeah, I know."_

"Good to see you again Naruto," Ayme said happily. "What will you have today?"

"Three miso ramens to start please!"

"Will do. And I'll have my father put three more on when he's done with those like usual."

"Thanks Ayme!" I smirked to myself, silently gloating at my ramen flavored victory.

"Hey Naruto, did you ever get that book back?" Ayme asked after delivering the order to her father.

"Book?"

"Yeah, that adventure novel. Tale of the gutsy- whatever it was."

With a start I remembered the book that was supposed to be acting as my attention decoy. The one I left here a week ago and was never able to come back for. But, before I could panic Jiraya interrupted.

"Oh, oops. Completely slipped my mind," he said before hearing him root around in one of his pouches. "Here you go gaki."

The hollow sound of a paperback book being dropped onto the counter could be heard. I quickly picked it up and examined it.

"Why did you have it?"

"I'm sorry, I asked him to drop it off to you when he was here last week," Ayme explained. "I didn't think it would take as long as it did."

"That's alright," I said, sending her a reassuring smile in the process. "Thanks for watching it for me."

"Shouldn't you thank your sensei? He watched it longer than I did."

"Yeah, she's right. You haven't been thanking me nearly enough lately," Jiraya said.

I thumbed through the pages, pretending not to hear them.

"Naruto…" Ayme voice warned, her spatula thumping softly against the palm of her hand.

"I guess," I muttered, sticking my nose into a random page.

"Well?"

"Thanks Ero-senin," I said. I chuckled as I heard an annoyed sigh from my sensei.

"You're not going to let that go, are you?"

"Nope."


	14. Chapter 14

Happy Monday everyone. Again thanks for the reviews. I love getting feedback :) Also, I meant to say this last week, but if anyone has any cool prank ideas you think would fit well in this story, let me know. The way this stories going I'm going to need quite a bit of good ones that I probably won't be able to come up with on my own. The one thing I ask in these ideas is that they aren't blatantly copying something else. Other than that, go crazy :)

Also, sorry for the abrupt ending, again it was either have it super short, end where I have it, or have it end up three chapters long.

Anyways, Hope you enjoy,

Trouble 1  
~~~~~~~~

"So…" Jiraya started as they waited for their meals. "You're reading _Tales of the Gutsy Ninja_, huh?"

The blond looked up at him for a moment before turning back to the book.

"Yep."

"Liking it so far?"

"Yeah, it's pretty cool. Lots of action." Jiraya's ego inflated a bit, happy someone's enjoying it.

"What about the main character?"

"I like him," he didn't even bother to look up this time. "Very realistic."

"Good, good. Anything… familiar about him?"

"No, why?" His sensei stared at him with a look of true surprise.

How could the boy not recognize his own name? He stared at Naruto for a while before noticing something, one thing that he should have noticed as soon as he opened the cover. The book was upside down.

No, not reading, he's head never moved not even a centimeter. He turned the page, yes, but he never looked at both pages. He was pretending to read the book to cover something up. He could see now that Naruto was tense when "reading" like he was stressed.

"Oh, nothing." Jiraya watched the tension in his muscles disappear, confirming that the questions were to blame.

By this time, Jiraya had figured out what was wrong with the boy, but he had to make sure. So after making sure no one was looking, he waved a hand in front of his book.

Naruto's head popped up for a moment, making Jiraya think that maybe he was wrong.

"Kinda windy," Naruto said, turning back to the book.

Jiraya sighed, getting up from his seat.

"Where are you going?" Naruto looked up at him, confused.

"I have something I forgot to do earlier," he lied as he pulled some money out of his wallet.

The girl came back balancing the three bowls. Jiraya waited until she set the bowls down before handing her the bills.

"Here's the money for his food, just make sure to cut him off after ten."

"Oh come on! I worked hard enough for fifteen, didn't I?" Naruto asked.

"Did your jutsu start working in the twenty minutes it took to get here?"

"…No…"

"Then you get only ten."

"Ok." She gave him a kind smile before turning to Naruto. "Here you go, Naruto."

"Yay! Ramen!" he shouted before putting his book down and digging into the ramen. "Arigato sensei."

"You're welcome. See you tomorrow." The boy waved before turning back to his food.

As soon as he was out of sight, even though he knew it wasn't really an issue at this point, he quickly shunshined away in search of someone.

! ! ! !30 MINUTES LATER! ! ! !

A half hour later, after searching three different training grounds, asking five different people of his where-abouts, and finally grilling his old sensei, he ended up in a desert like training ground outside the village. From where he stood he could see Kakashi lounging against a rock as his minion ran laps consecutively.

It wasn't long before Kakashi looked up from his Icha Icha book and waved lazily at the sannin. Jiraya waved back as he moved towards his student's student.

"Kakashi. It's been a while," he stated once he was close enough.

"Yes, it has." The two men shook hands.

"So how's the council's favorite student doing?"

"Not bad, I suppose," Kakashi said, glancing towards the running teen. "I've had him running all week. Probably won't be able to get away with it much longer but I'm enjoying it for now."

"You'd make a good Nara."

"If I had more brain power, maybe. So what brings you here?"

"Whatever do you mean?" Jiraya asked in fake naivety.

"You only go searching for people if you have urgent business with them, because if you didn't, you'd just wait for them to come home."

"You caught me, I wanted to talk to you about you're student's eyes." Kakashi glanced at Sasuke in an almost silent question. Jiraya answered in a whisper. "Your other student."

They stared at each other for almost a minute before Kakashi nodded then turned to talk to his student.

"Sasuke, I have to talk with this man for a moment. You're to continue you're training till I get back." The boy gave him a look that said he was tired of this training. "And if I find you had stopped, I'll have Anko join us again tomorrow."

As soon as Anko's name was stated, the boy started running again, faster than before.

"You got Anko involved?"

"She was bored and he didn't want to do my training," the man shrugged with a sly eye-smile. "Turns out she's a great motivator."

"So, you figured out about Naruto's sight deficiency?" Kakashi asked, once they were out of sight and hearing range of the other student.

"Yep, he was reading my book and couldn't recognize his own name. Bit of a tip off if you ask me."

"Probably should have told him the basics when I gave him the book."

"So you're helping him hide it."

"Guilty as charged."

"Why did he decide to keep it secret?"

"He doesn't want to lose his ninja certification."

Jiraya was silent for a moment to decide if it was a good enough excuse. Finding it acceptable he continued on with his questions.

"How many people know?"

"As of right now? Three." Jiraya's jaw dropped. "Not including Naruto."

"Are you counting me?"

"Yes."

"I assume the hokage is the other."

"Nope, Rin," Kakashi answered, making Jiraya gawked at him for a bit. "What?"

"The Hokage doesn't know?!"

"No."

Jiraya ran a hand through his hair in thought before speaking again.

"And how long have you been keeping this a secret from your hokage?"

"A week and a half."

"Wait, how long has he been blind?"

"A week and a half." There was silence as he tried to do the math.

"You mean to tell me that he was only blind for three or four _days _before dooping me for a week straight?!" Kakashi nodded. "I'm getting rusty."

"Or he's just really good at fooling people." There was an awkward silence.

"I'm _really _getting rusty."

"Actually, from what I've, he's actually improving in that area," Kakashi answered with a chuckle. "Fairly quickly, I might add."

"Wonder who's training him because it sure ain't me," Jiraya grumbled.

"Maybe he's figuring it out on his own, he has a pretty good reason to need to."

"A natural huh?" Jiraya said with an amused huff. "I guess I made a good choice when I took him on as a student."

"I thought you weren't going to take on another apprentice after Minato-sensei."

"He's not my apprentice. But after what I just heard, I'm starting to seriously consider making him one. He'd be a great successor to keep my spy network running."

"With a bit of training, I have no doubt he would. If we can get him to overcome his blindness."

"Which is the main problem here." Jiraya sat down on a rock with a sigh. "How am I supposed to teach a boy who can't see?"

"Same way you teach anyone else," he answered. "Especially considering that he doesn't know you know. Just explain everything more thoroughly. Don't show him as much, but show some things so he doesn't think you know. Also give him a few hints towards a way he could make up for his eyes."

"And how do you know all this?"

"I've been reading." He held up the Icha Icha book.

"I didn't think my books had that type of content in them."

"But it's good at hiding books that do." Kakashi pealed the book cover back, showing a book about the disabled. "Found it in the library."

"Strange, never saw someone hide a different book in an Icha Icha cover. My books are usually the ones hiding. But wait, wouldn't the librarian be suspicious?"

"Nope. I take out weird books all the time, she doesn't even look at the covers anymore."

"She's too busy flirting back at you to look at the books anyways. Am I right?"

"What can I say, librarians are hot," he said with a shrug. "And nurses, and shop keepers, and waitresses, and-"

"I get it. You flirt with anything female in a five mile radius."

"You wanna read it?"

"Sure," Jiraya said with a shrug himself. "If it can help. Thanks."

Just as Kakashi was about to respond, they heard a shout from town.

"Was that…"

"Naruto? Yep. Where'd you leave him?"

"The ramen shop. I brought him ten bowls of ramen, he couldn't have gone through them all already, could he?"

"Easily."

"Damn, I'll go find him."

"Good luck with that."

Jiraya just glared at him before he shunshined away. Kakashi went back to where his other student was still running, pulling the real Icha Icha from his pouch and opening it.

"You can stop running now, minion. It's time for pushups!"

! ! ! !5 MINUTES EARLIER! ! ! !

I was walking home, or at least trying to. In truth, I was lost. I had no idea where I was. I couldn't smell the ramen stand anymore, which is a good indication I wasn't close to home. I could hear someone selling fish across the street. I don't even _know _where fish is sold around town!

It turns out that I was way too focused on where I was, instead of where I was going. I was just about to try my jutsu again to see if it would work when I ran into someone. They must have been running because I ended up on ground with said person on top me.

"Idiot! Look where you're going, will ya!?" a feminine voice shouted at me. Before I could place the voice, she continued talking. "Wait, you're that kid that fought the dog boy. Um, fishcakes?"

"Naruto," I corrected a bit startled.

"Same thing. Anyways, that was a good fight, I guess I can forgive you."

"Thanks? Can you get off me now?"

"Nope."

"Why not?"

"You're comfy." I felt her arms cross across my chest and her head rest on them. "Plus you smell good. Like foxes."

I froze at this statement. I already knew I smelled like a fox, but not enough for a normal nose to pick up. Thinking this, I suddenly felt the need to figure out who this girl was. So, using my new senses and took in the smells around me. Oddly enough, she didn't smell bad herself, like grass, fresh water, and …beetles? Strange, but she did sound familiar, like that mint-haired girl from Taki. Yeah, that's her, Fu.

After figuring out who it was, I was unable to do a mental victory dance. Instead I was spoken to by a voice I've been hearing from a lot more lately. But he sounded different than I ever heard him, for the first time the Kyuubi actually sounded scared.

"**Shit! You have to get out of there kit**!"

"_Why?_"

"**Because I'm not ready to die! And I doubt you are either**."

"_And that has to do with her because?_"

"**She's the host of the Nanabi and if she figures out that you're my host, we're screwed! One way or another."**

"_Again, why?"_

"**Me and her have, history. So if you stay they're going to beat us senseless.**"

"_Seriously?"_

"**Do you want to test it?**"

"_No. What do I do?" _I asked, the Kyuubi's fear starting to make me nervous.

"**I already told you, run!"**

"_Wouldn't that make her suspicious?"_

"**Good point,**" he said after a moment. "**How about you just make a slow, quiet escape before she figures out I'm here."**

"_Sounds like a plan,"_ I answered, his own fear making me more agreeable. This chat only took a couple seconds, all the while Fu was silent, no doubt thinking about something.

"You know, those whisker marks make you look kind of foxy as well." As she spoke, the Kyuubi started chanting curse words.

"You don't say."

"You don't happen to know the nine-tailed fox do you?" she asked, suddenly making said foxed shriek.

"**SHE KNOWS! RUN!**" Before I could even think, I was up and darting in a random direction, letting out a frightened yell during the process. "**Faster!**"

"_Have you forgotten I can't see?!"_

"**Oh, hold on." **After a moment he was back to talking. **"There, try your jutsu now."**

I immediately sent a small bit of chakra out towards the real world. I almost tripped over my own feet when it came back, portraying my bleary, undefined surroundings for me. Right after I realized I was seeing stuff, I realized there was a pole a foot away from my head. Dodging it, I continued running.

I kept running, dodging whatever my jutsu was able to pick up.

"_How did you fix it?_"

"**Less talking more running!**" I nodded, running even faster from the girl behind me. I was doing well too, until I glanced back and ran into something in front of me.

"Are you alright Naruto?" the thing asked in the voice of my sensei. Figuring that it must be him, I jumped to my feet and darted behind him.

"Save me!" I told him desperately before he could even ask why, she was already there.

"Oh come on foxy, I'm not going to bite. Much." I peeked out from behind Jiraya, to see her matching my movements. I shrieked again, diving back behind him, only to have to climb up his back when she tried to reach for me. I ended up perched on his shoulders as she jumped to reach me.

"Come back down! I'm not that scary, am I?"

"You're scaring the Fox!" I hissed back quietly. "What do you think?!"

Before she could answer, I was yanked off my perch by my collar at the same time she was picked up off the ground by her bag.

"What the hell is going on here?!" the Sannin demanded.

"Seven," I said panicking, pointing at her.

"Nine," she said happily, pointing back at me.

"I see," he said after a moment of thought. "We're going to see the hokage now."


	15. Chapter 15

Hey everyone. Thanks for all the reviews. I'm you liked the last chapter. Anyways, here's the next chapter, it's a little exposition heavy and possibly out of character. I might go back later and clean it up a bit but for how, here it is. Also, fair warning, I'm running low on pre-written chapters. I have maybe two or three more weeks before I've caught up to myself. So, I'll try to keep the Monday update thing going but I'm not sure how well that will go since most of the stories I've been working on like that go about a chapter a month. I just thought you should have a bit of a warning.

But enough about that, ON WITH THE STORY!

Hope you enjoy,

Trouble 1  
~~~~~~~~

"What the hell is going on here?!" the Sannin demanded.

"Seven," I said panicking, pointing at her.

"Nine," she said happily, pointing back at me.

"I see," he said after a moment of thought. "We're going to see the hokage now."

I opened my mouth to object when there was a pop and we disappeared from the market place. We shinsuned straight into the hokage's office, making my jutsu fail for a moment before starting back up again.

"Jiraya, you do realize I have a door, right?" the hokage said with a sigh.

"Yes sensei." I gawked at him in surprise.

"You were taught by the third?!" I heard a sigh but was otherwise ignored.

"You do know that door is there to be knocked on?" he asked him again.

"My hands are a bit full."

"I can see that. Care to explain why?"

"I found Naruto here, running for his life from this girl."

"And who is she?"

"Fuu," she piped up. "I'm from Taki."

"You're here for the exams, right?"

"Yep, made it to the third exam."

"Congratulations. Would you care to explain why you were chasing Naruto?"

"It's my job," she said simply. She then continued before they could become worried about it. "He's host of the nine-tails, and I host the seven-tails. I _have _to chase him."

"Well, that makes more sense." The hokage continued smoking his pipe, acting like me getting chased by a foreign ninja across town was _normal._ I said as much.

"Make sense?! She's chasing me for no reason and the freaking _Kyuubi_ is scared shitless! How does it _make sense_?!"

"He doesn't know about the legend, does he?" Fuu asked the hokage, ignoring me.

"It's not common knowledge now a days."

"What legend?" I asked, confirming her assessment.

"It's an old story that struck fear in the villages in control of both the seven tails and nine tails."

Jiraya finally placed the pair of us on the ground as the Third spoke. Though he made sure that he didn't let go in case either I started running or she started chasing.

"It was a simple tale, long before the villages were created," the Third continued. "Back then, the byjuus ran free, unaffected by the humans in the world. In this time, the Kyuubi and the Nanabi were relatively close. According the story, the Kyuubi would purposely torment the Nanabi until she would finally have enough and chase after him. The pair of them would run across the elemental nations for days, even weeks, until the nine tails finally decided to risk letting himself get caught."

"Why? Wouldn't he have been beat up?"

"Only half the time," Fuu piped up. "The other half, they'd get busy."

"Busy doing what?"

"You know, they were 'getting it on.'"

"Huh?"

"They were screwing," Jiraya finally stated.

"What? They were building something?"

"Sensei, has Naruto been giving The Talk yet?"

"I'm guessing not," he answered. "I'd have to ask Kakashi."

"Well, he should probably be here anyways so you might as well summon him."

"Might as well." He made some sort of gesture followed by the almost silent swish of fabric as an ANBU left to find him.

"While we wait for him, we should talk about your trying to 'catch' Naruto."

"First of all, let me say I was chasing him more to freak out Kyuubi-kun than anything," Fu said. I felt the tailed beast in question's fur prick angrily.

"He doesn't like being called that," I stated.

"He should get used to it because it's either that or Ku-chan."

"That's just demeaning," I said for the Kyuubi.

"Guess I know what I'll call you from now on, Ku-chan."

"Stop it!"

"Never!"

"You're always so childish!"

"Because you're always a self-righteous prick!"

I opened my mouth to say something else the Kyuubi wanted to be known when I thought better of it.

"This isn't going to work," I said instead. I thought for a moment before coming up with an idea.

"**Not bad, considering**. **Now you'd have to convince the hokage to let you do it.**"

"Hey Jiji, if I make a clone with the Kyuubi's chakra to let him talk, would I get in trouble?"

"What?" The hokage blinked.

"Well, he wants to bicker with Nanabi and I don't like saying stuff I don't understand. So if I make a clone with _his _chakra, it would be more his clone than mine."

"And why would you think this is a good idea?"

"Well, I'd have control of the clone and could poof him as soon as he does something funny. But he could still contribute to the conversation."

"One question, whose idea was this?" Jiraya asked nervously.

"Mine."

"Not the Kyuubi's right?"

"Yeah, why?"

"Alright, I'll allow you to do this, but only after I seal off the room," Sarutobi said.

"Won't Kaka-sensei be locked out?"

"Only people inside the seal would be locked in. Anyone can come in if needed."

"Ok." I smirked, crossing my fingers in my favorite seal.

The Kyuubi weaved enough of his chakra with mine to give him mental control of the clone. There was a poof and when the smoke cleared I saw a form not similar to my own in the slightest.  
\- - - -

The hokage almost lost his pipe as he took in what appeared in front of him. The village leader had expected a copy of Naruto, not the man standing next to the boy.

He had long, red hair tied back with a back ribbon as well as a pair of fox ears sticking out of his head. The man's eyes were slitted and of the same color, adding to the feral look the exaggerated whisker marks already created. He was dressed in a black silk top that resembled a decretive Kimono, along with a pair of red baggy pants almost hiding his bare feet.

"That's better," he said as he began to stretch. He yawned slightly, his animalistic k9s flashing as a bright orange tail flicking out from behind him. "Feels good to have a real body again, even if it's a puny human form."

"Why don't you look like Naruto?" The hokage asked still startled.

"Hedge. There was no way I was wearing that." He motioned towards his host in disgust. "I might be a demon but I still have standards."

"You have a tail," Naruto said.

"I'm a fox, foxes have tails. Didn't you pay attention in school?"

"Well, sorry if I didn't expect a _human clone _have a _tail_."

"My turn!" Fuu announced. Before they could stop her, she began weaving water out of her bag to create a water clone in the same way.

The person that appeared was again older than its source. The women, because she was obviously female, had long, light blue hair, hanging loose around her hips. She was wearing a bright green halter top dress, with a flowing skirt ending about her knees. There was also a pair of large, detached sleeves going all the way down her arms. Unlike the other byjuuu, she had on a simple pair of sandals on her feet.

"Hello sweetie." She fluttered her insect-like wings momentarily, sending the other proud byjuuu cowering behind his host.

"Keep away from me River Song incarnate!" he shouted over the startled boy's head.

"You really think I'm like her? I'm flattered."

"No, you're worse."

"You're going to regret that," she said through an evil smile. She lunged at the fox only for him to dive behind the hokage's desk. They continued to race around said desk, taunting each other through-out.

"At least it's not me." The stunned man heard Naruto say as everyone watched the two run.

"Who said that?" Fuu taunted, making the young boy freeze.

"B-but, they're over t-there!"

"So? I wasn't chasing you just because the Nanabi wanted to. You're a cute boy my age, if you weren't, I wouldn't listen to her. I'm not _that _easily manipulated." Naruto paused, trying to understand what she meant.

"That would mean…" he started to speak, only to stop when the girl grinned.

"You should start running, Foxy." She made the boy to dart behind the sannin only to have her follow.

When Kakashi made it into the room five minutes later, the hokage had finally had it.

"Enough!" he shouted, causing both running pairs to freeze in place. "I don't care if two of you are the most powerful demons in the world! This is _my_ office and you will restrain yourself! Is that _clear_?"

"Yes sir!" all four said fearfully, scrambling to get into line in front of the desk.

"Glad you were able to make it Kakashi. You were summoned a half hour ago."

"Well-" Kakashi began to explain only for Naruto to interrupt.

"He was looking for someone to keep an eye on the teme when he ran into Anko and knocked her dangos onto the floor. He ended up having to run for his life 'til he offered her the chance to torment the teme, and she took off, almost skipping, to his training ground."

"He's actually right," Kakashi said after a moment.

"Seriously?"

"Yeah."

"But I was joking!"

"I know." The boy gave him an unbelieving look. "I have the dango sticks in my ass to prove it." He turned to show Anko's name written in dango sticks. This caused the two youngest in the room to double over laughing.

"I like her," the Nanabi said before joining in with the laughter. The Kyuubi just shook his head at their antics.

"Uh, mind filling me in on who the people I don't know are?"

"Kyuubi and Nanabi," the Hokage said, indicating the two ancient beings standing in his office. The man's eye widened in surprise. "And those pieces of papers across the room are active barrier seals, not letting anyone leave."

"Are you sure this is a wise idea, even with the seal?"

"Probably not, but it's a little late now." Kakashi nodded before starting to remove the large splinters from his buttocks.

"Are you three done?" Sarutobi asked with an intimidating flair. They nodded, still chuckling. "Good, so am I right to assume that the legend is correct?"

"Why do you think neither of us have had a male jinchuriki before now?" The Kyuubi said simply. "They were terrified a situation like this would happen and they'd end up with a whole bunch of demon children to deal with."

"I've heard of that." The one eyed man looked up from the growing pile of sticks to contribute to the conversation. "That was the main reason the counsel was so against Naruto to begin with."

"They wanted him dead, didn't they?" Everyone stared at the fox in shock. "What? You think I didn't notice that half the 'mobs' were actually groups of missing nin with money signs flashing in their eyes? Or all those times he 'accidentally' ingested some sort of poison that I had to deal with? Oh and that Wave mission he was on seemed way too suspicious to be looked over like it was. I'm willing to bet it was purposely ignored to try and take the boy out, at least the supposed 'demon brothers' part."

"How do you know all that?" Naruto looked confused as he asked. "You've only been able to see the outside for a week."

"I looked through your memories soon after you had them. There's more than one way to skin a cat, you know."

"Don't let the Nibi hear you say that," the Nanabi pipped up. Kyuubi just gave her an unamused look before returning to the subject at hand. "Anyways, aren't we supposed solve our predicament?"

"What exactly am I solving here?" the old man asked.

"I don't want to be caught!" Naruto and the Kyuubi said in unison.

"We want to catch!" the other two said excitedly.

"Ok then." He lit his pipe to give him a moment to think. "Well, since Naruto is only twelve I don't think it would be healthy for him to be 'caught'."

"Aw, come on! I wanted to chase Ku-chan!" Nanabi complained.

"You can chase him all you like, just don't catch him." He earned terrified looks from the other pair.

"When are we allowed to actually catch them?" Fuu asked.

"When he turns sixteen."

"But that's like four years away!"

"Closer to three," the hokage explained calmly. "He'll be thirteen in a couple months."

"But-"

"No buts, he's my ninja so my word's law. Understood?"

"Yes sir." Fuu said, as the Nanabi thought for a moment.

"So, let me get this straight. I'm allowed to chase them, but not catch him."

"Not in your traditional sense, no."

"Then why would he run?!"

"Give him a new reason the do so," he advised. "If you can't catch him, do something else. Mess up his hair, steal his weapons, force him to buy you dinner. Something that won't result in the traumatization of one of my ninja."

"I like it," Fuu said with a plotting smirk.

"I don't," Naruto moped.

"Kit, you're lucky you got it as easy as this." Kyuubi sounded almost mournful at this point. "Enjoy it while it lasts."

"And on a related note," the hokage started getting everyone's attention before continuing. "Kakashi, has Naruto had The Talk yet?!"

"Well, considering I haven't talked to him about it and I highly doubt Iruka has, I'd have to say no."

"Have no fear sensei!" Jiraya exclaimed loudly. "I will explain everything to the boy."

"Jiraya, I don't think that's a good-" Kakashi was cut off by a poof, indicating a shinshun. But when the smoke and leaves cleared, the two were still standing there awkwardly.

"The seal." The Kyuubi waved a hand towards the paper in a bored fashion.

"Oh yeah, do you mind sensei?" The old man sighed as he put his hand over a seal on his desk and flashed his chakra enough to let the pair out. As soon as they disappeared, Kakashi sighed.

"Hokage-sama, do you really think that was a good idea?" he asked, his face looking as if he thought otherwise.

"Yes, the boy needed to know and who would be better to tell him?"

"Almost anyone, sir."

"He gave you're sensei the same talk."

"That's why I'm concerned." The man with the hat gave him a strange look. "Do you remember what his wife would do when she got mad at him?"

"She'd chase him around town with a spatula."

"And if she was still mad the next morning?"

"She'd 'decide' to have bagels and bananas for breakfast and he'd be traumatized for the rest of the day. Is this going somewhere?"

"Almost there, and why was he traumatized by bananas and bagels?"

"Because when Jiraya gave him The Talk he used… props. Oh."

"Congrats you just traumatized the boy you were trying to prevent from being traumatized."

"That poor child."

"Uh, sir?" The hokage turned towards Fu, indicating for her to continue. "Can I leave now? I have training to do."

"Oh, yes you may. Just make sure the Nanabi's back in your seal." She nodded, dispelling the hedged clone just as said byju was about to complain.

"I'd best be going too," the Kyuubi said, eyeing the Mint haired girl wearily. "The farther from _her_ I can get, the better. That and my host being traumatized is bound to be hilarious."

"You sound way too happy about this." The hokage eyed the fox with suspicion.

"How else am I supposed to be entertained?" He shrugged before turning towards Kakashi. "And Cyclops, don't worry so much, he's going to drive that Huuga prick insane next month."

"Bye," he said before poofing away himself. The two adults remaining sighed in relief.

"Remind me never have two byjuu's in my office again."

"I will try, Hokage –sama."

"Now Fuu, before you go, I'm sure I don't have to tell you not to let the Nanabi out like that without my permission. Am I right?"

"Don't worry, I'm not that stupid."

"Good. And the arrangement between you and Naruto is to be kept a secret."

"I won't tell anyone. The Taki council would have my head if they knew what I was planning."

"I don't doubt that. You may go now."

"Thanks." She skipped through the door as Kakashi made a peace sign and disappeared out the window.

"I'm getting too old for this," he said with a sigh as Naruto's shout was heard across town for the second time that day. "Far too old."


	16. Chapter 16

I'm really sorry about not posting a chapter last week. After the low quality one last time I wanted to give you something a little better than I had. And since what I had was just an explanation of what happened over the three weeks I was going to skip, that meant writing a completely new chapter. I probably would have had it done by last Monday but all my recreational writing was put aside for the week for finals. Anyways, I just finished this chapter maybe an hour ago, and have been editing it for the rest of that time. So if there's more mistakes than usual, that's why. And, just so you know, I'm writing a completely new chapter for next week as well, so if it's a little late I apologize in advance. I have another story I have to start for a friend. It shouldn't take very long but it will have my top priority this week. Until I'm done with it that is.

As always, thanks for the reviews! I'll be responding to you guys soon. There's a lot of you this time so I have to put aside some time in order to do so.

Anyways, Hope you enjoy,

Trouble 1  
~~~~~~~~

! ! ! !THE NEXT DAY! ! ! !

"Naruto, unlock the door!" I heard Jiraya shout as he banged on said door unmercifully.

He'd been out there for probably five minutes now trying to get in. I just sat on my bed, the thought of moving not even crossing my mind. He can bang on the door till the chunnin exams were done and over with, I still wasn't letting him in.

"Go away!" I shouted back. "You're an asshole!"

"Are you still mad about yesterday?" I didn't say anything, which was apparently all the answer he really needed. "That was something you needed to know!"

"No it wasn't! Go away!" I heard him sigh on the other side, pausing in his abuse of my already weak door.

"Oh come on, it wasn't that bad."

In answer to that I got up and picked up the bunch of bananas that I threw away yesterday, and proceeded to chuck them out the window towards my perverted teacher. Judging by the faint splat I heard a few seconds later, they missed their mark and hit the ground.

"Just like Minato" I heard him mutter under his breath before raising his voice. "You know, I can break this door if I wanted."

"Do it!"

"I will!"

"Enjoy the waterproof paint and the itching powder!"

The sanin stalled for a moment.

"You rigged the door didn't you," Jiraya said, not bothering to phrase it as a question.

"I don't know? Why don't you break the door down and find out!"

Jiraya huffed in agitation.

"You know what? Fine. I'll leave you alone," he said, a few footsteps echoing on the walkway outside before the paused. "But I'll be back!"

"Don't bother!" I shouted back, hearing him sigh again before his footsteps resumed, taking him down the stars.

"**Wow, if I knew The Talk was going to make you this upset, I would have told you myself years ago," **The Kyuubi mocked in amusement.

"Shut up," I said as I flopped back onto my bed. "I don't need to deal with you right now."

"**No can do kit."**

"Why not?" I asked with a groan.

"**Guess what day it is."**

"Tuesday?"

"**And last Tuesday you did what?"**

"That… prank on Ebisu?"

"**And **_**why **_**did you prank him?"**

"The…deal I made with you."

"**Correct, for once. So today is also the day that I start to mentally torment you until you prank someone."**

I groaned even louder. It wasn't even nine o'clock in the morning and I already couldn't see how this day could possibly get any worse.

"I should have let him break the door," I muttered to myself.

**"Unless that door was a lot more impressive then you led him to believe then it wouldn't have stopped me."**

"I hate you," I said, earning a chuckle from him.

**"Aww, I hate you too,"** he answered, in a tone way too enthusiastic for his own good.

"I hate you, I hate Jiraya, I hate pretty much everything right now."

**"You're learning quick."** I sighed angrily, which only made him more amused. **"Fine, I'll bite. Why do you hate everyone?"**

"Because you're all disgusting," I said, glaring at nothing. "I mean _that's _what everyone's obsessed with? I thought it was just naked girls, which was kinda weird but still, at least it wasn't something so…so disgusting!"

"**You said 'disgusting' twice. Anyways, ****It's a fact of life, kit. You can't really condemn us for it."**

"Yes I can, it's gross!"

**"You're just too young to appreciate such things."**

"No matter how old I get, it will still be gross."

**"You keep believing that," **he said. **"This probably not the best time to say that the Nanabi is technically my sister."**

My jaw dropped in surprise and disgust.

"Are you kidding me?!"

**"Nope."**

"That's even worse!?"

**"For humans maybe, but we view things a little differently," **he began to explain. **"There's only nine biju so if we want to have some fun we either do so with each other or find a human lover, which none of us would be caught dead with."**

"Or you could, I don't know, NOT DO IT!"

The Kyubi only laughed.

"**So naïve! It's actually kinda adorable."**

"I'm not being adorable!"

"**So you think," **he said, continuing to chuckle to himself. **"Anyways, I suggest getting some sort of prank ready because I'm just going to continue till something hilarious happens."**

"Oh, and what are you gonna do, sing something really annoying?" I asked sarcastically.

"**I could, but I was thinking something a little different," **he answered smugly. **"You see, the Nanabi and I spent thousands of years 'having fun.' And I wouldn't mind sharing some of these 'experiences.'"**

"Please don't," I whispered desperately.

"**So, there was this one time, about two thousand years ago where-"**

"I'm going! I'm going!" I yelled as I leaped off the bed and straight into the far wall.

"**Turn on your eyes, stupid."**

"Shut up," I muttered.

I focused for a moment, activating my jutsu for the first time today. A blurry version of my room came into view. I rubbed my face where I hit the wall, watching my sight wavier as my hand went past the focus point.

It was still a bit hard to get used to. It was nothing like seeing used to be. There was no color and not much texture, everything was blank, undefined objects that I had to guess what they were. Half the time I ended up having to use those extra strong senses to figure it out, but it did help me avoid things so it wasn't completely useless.

Well, once my vision stabilized, I climbed to my feet and headed into the main room. I went to over to board under which I kept my more secret pranking equipment. I pried up the board, and began taking inventory.

"**So, what are you going to do?"** He asked curiously.

"Just gonna tweak the door a little more," I answered, pulling out a bag of confetti and a can of either spray paint or silly string. "He's no doubt going to go through it when he comes back, whether I have it locked or not. So I'm going to give him a little something to remind him why he shouldn't do so in the future."

"**Sounds fun," **he said, no doubt grinning like a mad man. Or, well, a mad fox I guess. **"Go right ahead, just make it as outrageous as possible."**

I pulled out the rest of the gear I wanted before getting to work. The silence that followed was heavenly.

! ! ! !TWENTY MINUTES LATER! ! ! !

Jiraya walked back up the apartment stairs, a plastic, grocery bag firmly in his grasp. He was still annoyed at his students antics, after all, he didn't think using props was that bad of an idea for talks like that.

He thought back to the rest of the students he had explained the finer facts of life to, all of which ended up acting the same as Naruto. Yahiko, Konan, and Nagato had collaborated to lock him out of the house for a week after such things. Minato, on the other hand, had a habit of throwing away any banana or bagel he came in contact with, even if they belonged to someone else. There were several times he caught the boy nudging someone's breakfast into the trashcan while they weren't looking.

Ok, maybe it was time for him to admit that he might not be the best one to teach kids about such things. He shrugged, deciding that it was too late now, and if they needed to know, they needed to know.

He stopped in front of Naruto's door, debating if an apology was in order. Figuring it wouldn't hurt, he knocked on the door.

"Naruto! Open up," he called through the door.

"I don't answer people that knock," Naruto called back.

"What?"

"There's a doorbell for a reason, ero-sanin."

"Doorbell? What doorbell!" Jiraya shouted. "And don't call me that!"

"It's next to the door. I only answer when someone rings the doorbell."

Jiraya glanced next to the door, positive he wouldn't find a doorbell. He's ended up here every day for the past week and there was no way he'd miss something like…that. Jiraya stared at the weathered doorbell in surprise. He could have sworn there it wasn't there this morning. But, then again, it looked like it belonged. All the rest of them had doorbells so it shouldn't be that strange.

"You didn't say at all during the last week."

"That's because you always let yourself in," Naruto pointed out. "So either ring the doorbell or I'm not answering."

"Fine," Jiraya said with a huff.

He poked the bell angrily only for a loud blow horn to go off and confetti to explode up into his face. Spitting out the bits of colored paper, he finally snapped.

"That's it, gaki!"

Jiraya grabbed the doorknob and tried to force the door open. He threw himself at the door, only to find that it was already open. Losing his balance, he stumbled forward, straight into a pile of shaving cream. He slipped, falling to the ground, his face connecting with a plate full of peanut butter.

Jiraya laid there for a moment, stunned by the turn of events. When he finally got his head off the plate, it got knocked back into it by a bunch of bananas.

"Huh, Kyuubi was right, you are taller than I thought," he heard Naruto say from in front of him.

The Sanin sat up and wiped the peanut butter off his eyes before he opened then to look at the orange clad troublemaker. Naruto was sitting at the table eating a bowl of cereal. The boy barely gave him any notice as he continued to eat his breakfast, the most attention the older man got was him picking up a can and spraying silly string at his face.

Naruto finally looked towards his victim, seeing his handy work. And that's when the boy's poker face shattered. He started laughing like a maniac, his head dropping to the table as he lost control of his body in his amusement.

"What…was that?" Jiraya asked angrily as Naruto's laughter began to wane.

"A prank, duh," Naruto said through his chuckles.

"I know that!" he shouted, struggling to get to his feet without falling back to the ground. "I thought you said there was only itching powder and waterproof paint!"

"That's for people that break down the door. You didn't."

Jiraya thought for a moment before nodding in agreement.

"Guess that's fair," he answered as he started cleaning off the rest of the peanut butter and silly string off his face. "Does that mean we're even?"

"That depends, are you going to give another 'talk'?"

"Not for a while yet."

"Then…" Naruto paused dramatically. He made Jiraya wait almost half a minute before he pulled a cord hanging hear him which instantaneously dumped a bucket of bright orange paint on his sensei's head. "Yep, we're good."

"Then let's go kid," Jiraya said with a sigh. "You've got some training to do."

"Ok." Naruto took the last few bites of his cereal before leaping out of his chair. "What are we doing today?"

"First, I'm going to wash up. After I throw these away, of course."

Jiraya held up the now paint covered, plastic bag for his student. Naruto stared at him curiously, obviously having trouble figuring out what it was. Jiraya watched as he tried to stealthily use his other senses to help. After a few seconds, he finally decided to take a deep breath which almost caused his eyebrows to jump off his face.

"I-is that…_was _that…?"

"Ichiraku Ramen? Yes. I _was _going to give them to you as a sort of apology but since you took matters into your own hands, I guess these aren't needed anymore. Not to mention they're full of paint."

Jiraya dropped the bag into the trash as he kept an eye on his student. For the first time since Jiraya met him, the boy was speechless, well for a few seconds at least.

"I could have had ramen for breakfast," Naruto said quietly.

"Yep, but you ruined it for your own, petty revenge," Jiraya said sagely. "Now I hope you learned something from all this."

"It's all my fault."

"Yes it was. But did you learn anything?"

"It was so young."

"Wait what?"

"My poor ramen!"

"Naruto? Are you-"

"I'M SO SORRY!" Naruto yelled, falling to the floor in despair.

"Oh for Kami's sake." Jiraya rolled his eyes. He grabbed the boy's arm and pulled him to his feet. "Come on, you can mourn your meal later. We have training to do."


	17. Chapter 17

Hey everyone, yeah I know I'm late again. But at least it's not by a whole week this time. Anyways, thanks for all the reviews. As always I'm glad to see people are enjoying this story as much as I like writing it. As I said last week, this is also a newly written chapter so if there's any grammar or spelling issues I apologize, I just finished this five minutes ago.

Anyways, I hope you enjoy,

Trouble 1  
~~~~~~~~

! ! ! ! NEXT WEEK! ! ! !

"_I already told you no_," I told the fox firmly as I walked down the street. I was exhausted after the training and I still had grocery shopping I had to do. The food Kakashi-sensei dropped off did last a while, but apparently two weeks was the limit.

"**I don't think you realize how this works," **he exclaimed angrily. **"You see, you're supposed to prank people so I don't mess with you. Therefore, if you don't prank someone, you won't be able to think straight for a week!"**

"_And last time you had me prank someone three bowls of ramen were destroyed! I'm not willing to risk such a loss again."_

"**And it was hilarious!"**

"_No it wasn't! It was tragic!"_

"**To you."**

"_So I'm not pranking this week."_

"**YOU HAVE TO!"**

"NO I DON'T!" I shouted back, causing the street to go silent. I glanced around to see everyone practically frozen in the streets, their bodies angled towards me. I scratched the back of my head, an embarrassed smile spreading across my face. "Uh, I don't have my keys?"

After a moment, everyone started moving again as they whispered back and forth to each other, every word of it about me. I started walking again as well, not realizing I'd stopped. I kept my head low as I ran my hands through my hair tensely.

"_They think I'm crazy now,"_ I said silently to him. _"It's all your fault."_

"**Of course it is. And you want to know why that is? Because didn't prank someone!"**

"_Well, you didn't explain why my weird echo jutsu is working now either."_

"**What does that have to do with anything we're talking about?"**

"_Um, it kinda fit."_

"**No. No, it didn't."**

"_I really want to know alright? And you haven't told me!"_

"**Fine, I'll tell you after you prank."**

"_But, the ramen…"_

"**Just don't prank someone that has ramen. It's not that hard of a fix," **he said back, I could almost feel his tails twitching in annoyance. **"Hell, prank that minty girl that keeps steeling your clothes."**

"_She's kinda scary."_

"**She's not that bad."**

"_Every time we run into her you scream like a girl."_

"**I-uh…I- Shut up! That just means she deserves it."**

"Hi!" a female voice said in my ear, dragging the one word out longer than necessary.

"**Speak of the devil!"**

I let out a high pitched yelp as I leaped away, trying to get as far away from her as I could. I only got a few feet before I was tackled to the ground with my face in the dirt and Fu sitting cross-legged on my back.

"Got you!" she said proudly.

"Good for you, now let me go," I murmured, lifting my head off the ground.

"What do you say?"

"Please?" I said.

"Wrong!" she answered, no doubt smiling sinisterly. "I was looking for the answer of 'please my almighty Fu-sama' but nice try."

Before I could change my answer, I felt my goggles start to move. I tried to reach up and stop them but couldn't get my arms free before fresh air blew across my eyes for the first time in weeks.

"Yoink!" she said as she completely removed my goggles, causing me to panic. "I'll be borrowing these for a bit."

Fear coursed through me as I felt her get off my back. I climbed to my feet quickly, trying to figure out which person-shaped blob was her as quick as possible.

"These are pretty sweet," I heard her say.

I was immediately able to pinpoint her. She was walking away from me, holding what I assumed were my goggles up towards the sky. I'm not exactly sure why. Maybe to get a better look at them? Who knows. Anyways, she wasn't more than five yards away.

"Give them back," I demanded, careful to keep my eyes focused on the ground. I watched as she stopped and turned back towards me, lowering the goggles again.

"What?"

"**What?!"** The Kyubi echoed.

"Give me back my goggles," I said again, trying to ignore the panicking Biju in my gut.

"**Don't call her back you moron!" **he demanded as Fu sighed.

"That's not how this game is played, Fishcakes," she said, resting a hand on her hip. "I catch you. I take something. Then I give it back when I feel like it. If you're lucky they'll be in your apartment when you get home."

"I don't care about your stupid game. Just give me back my goggles."

"**Why did you have to choose today to rebel?!" **the Kyubi demanded. **"You can't ignore rules you moron!"**

"Shut up! I'm not talking to you!" I shouted at the fox, getting an angry grunt in response before I turned back to Fu. "And you, those goggles are important to me. I seriously couldn't care less what you take off me, but those are off limits."

"How can they be off limits if I already have them?"

"Just give them back."

"How bout, no," she answered, spinning back around to leave.

At this point I thought all was lost. I had a feeling she wouldn't give them up easily if only because I told her to return them. And if I didn't have those goggles, it would only be a matter of time before someone noticed my eyes and them the whole thing would be done with, including my ninja status. It would all be over. There would be no way for me to run from it.

My mind suddenly got stuck on the word 'run.' I was always running from Fu, making her chase me. And she really liked the chasing, to the point that I think she's slightly upset when she finally catches me. But, how can someone chase you, if you don't run?

"If you don't, I swear I won't let you chase me for the rest of the day!" I shouted quickly, before I could lose my train of thought. She had only gotten a few feet away when she stopped.

"What the hell does that mean?" She spun back around angrily. "I can chase you any time I damn well want!"

"No, you can't." I could almost feel her glair trying to burn holes in me.

"We'll see," she answered, turning on her heals before darting off.

"**Are you insane?" **the Kyubi shouted in my mind. I grimaced a bit.

"_Maybe," _I answered silently. _"But if it works then she won't take them ever again."_

"**As long as the psycho bitches don't kill us first!"**

"_Come on, how bad could it be?"_

! ! ! !TWO HOURS LATER! ! ! !

"Just one stop left. Just one stop left," I chanted as I made my way down the street.

I had finally gotten all my groceries for the last few weeks and was on my way to my last place on the list. I would skip it, if I could stand the increasingly bad smells coming from the abandoned apartment buildings on my floor. Normally it wouldn't bother me, after all it was only really noticeable on a hot day, but that all changed when I began relying on my nose more.

I kept my face hidden behind my book while I carried my scroll full of food in my other hand. Pretending to read helped me ignore the figures surrounding me that couldn't keep their eyes to themselves.

"Finally," I muttered in front of the Yamanaka flower shop. I hurried through the door to escape the stares only to almost drop my book at the assault my nose was experiencing. It smelled like there was a hundred different flowers being shoved up my nose.

"Hello! Welcome to the-HOLLY CRAP!" I heard Ino exclaim. "WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU WEARING!"

I glanced down at my person for effect as I ran inventory.

"Um, my boxers, a watch, and one sandal," I answered, turning back to my book. "What are you doing here?"

"My parents own the shop," she said offhand. "Where are your clothes?!"

"Stolen."

"Who the hell would want to steal your ugly jumpsuit?"

"A thief."

"Well you can't be in here like that."

I peeked my jutsu point overtop the book to see her standing with her arms crossed.

"I'm not naked."

"You're in your underwear."

"I had pants till about a block ago," I told her crossly. I stayed where I was by the door, hoping she'd let me in.

"Why don't you go home and come back with some actual clothes," she suggested with a sigh.

"I would, but by the time I got back here she'd have stolen them again."

I watched as Ino perked up at this, making me immediately regret having said it.

"_She? _You have a _girl_ stealing your clothes?"

"It's not what it sounds like," I said with a wince.

"Then what is it?" I bit my lip in order to stay silent, making her chuckle. "Fine, I'll help you with whatever you're looking for here as long as you tell me what's going on with this mystery girl. Deal?"

"Alright, I guess."

"Good!" Ino exclaimed, a hand motioning for me to come in. "How can I help you?"

"I'm looking for a flower," I answered, taking a few steps into the place. The smell was still way too intense for my nose's liking but I was doing a pretty good job ignoring it.

"Well, duh, that's why you're here! Wait, is it for the girl?"

"No! She already has my clothes, she's not getting flowers too!"

"Then, what's the flower for?"

"My apartment. I need something to make it smell a little better."

"You could clean it."

"I did," I said.

"Alright, whatever." Ino walked back from behind the counter and toward some flowers on the right. "Cut or uncut?"

"Uncut."

"I'm guess it will be inside so a potted plant." She continued past a bunch more before stopping. "It has to smell nice and the flowers themselves should probably last pretty long. Do you have any experience gardening?"

"A little, I have three leafy plants at home."

"Ok, then my suggestion would be an orchid of some type. Probably the Phalaenopsis Bellina."

"The what?" She didn't answer as she glanced through the flowers in front of her before pulling out one of them and holding it out to me.

"Smell it," she ordered. I followed her command only to get a strong, floral sent flooding my already abused nose. I began coughing as she pulled the flower back. "Don't like it?"

"Too strong," I coughed out.

"It's not that bad."

"It's just too strong for me."

"Fine," she put the pot back with a thud. She sounded disappointed, until she got an idea. She struck her palm with her other fist in excitement. "I got it! I think. You liked the sent, right?"

"Yeah, for the most part," I answered, my coughing subsiding.

"Alright then, stay here. I think I have something for you in the back."

"Ok?" I answered, but she had already disappeared into the back room.

I waited for a few minutes, the whole time listening to her shuffle around in the back, occasionally letting out muffled curse words when she didn't find what she was looking for. After a while, she let out an excited shout and hurried back to the front.

"Here, this is an orchid hybrid I experimented with a while ago. I'll admit, it didn't work out very well, but it has a more subtle smell than the bellina," she explained, holding the pot out to me.

I took a tentative sniff, not wanting it to assault my nose again. But it was just like she said, the smell was almost identical to the bellina, yet not as strong.

"It's not particularly pretty so I've been trying to get rid of it for a while now. If you want it, you can have it."

"I don't care how it looks."

"Is that why you've had your nose stuck in that book this whole time?"

"Yeah," I answered. "That, and training. Something about listening to my other senses." I shook my head. "Anyways, how much for the flower?"

"Just take it, it was never put on sale so consider it free."

"Seriously?" I asked in astonishment.

"Yeah, as long as you buy the supplies for it here," Ino said slyly. "Oh, and you still have to tell me about that girl."

"There's always a catch."

"Yep, now do you want it or what?"

I sighed in defeat as I placed the scroll under my arm and took the plant from her.

"What do I need?"

! ! ! !TWENTY MINUTES LATER! ! ! !

My nerves were shot. After I had told Ino only as much as I could get away with, I had to leave the safety of the shop once again. In the process of getting home, my other sandal was stolen, leaving me in only my boxers. Of course I was surrounded by people staring at me, but I didn't back down. The only thing that would have made me run was if Ichiraku's was giving away free ramen. And maybe an invasion.

I dragged myself up the stairs, having abandoned my book shield about five minutes back. Instead I kept my eyes down and focused on the steps. I stopped halfway up, getting a whiff of someone smelling like water and beetles over that of my orchid. My fist clenched as I used all the willpower I had to force myself to continue climbing the stairs again.

When I got to the top there was no one there. In fact, the only thing strange was an object sitting in front of my door. When I got closer, I noticed it definitely smelled of her. I bent down cautiously to pick it up, finding it to be a very familiar shape.

My fingers ran along the curved edges of the goggles almost lovingly before I put it back where it belonged.

"**You are one lucky little bastard, you know that?"** the Kyubi pointed out. This was the first time he'd spoken since I challenged the Taki girl. He wouldn't admit it, but it was scaring the fur right off him. **"If anyone else had tried that same gamble, they would have lost. Epically."**

"Even you?" I asked as I opened my front door.

"**Are you kidding? My luck isn't that good. Nanabi got most of it."**

"Whatever," I said, placing my flower on the kitchen table. "Just so you know, I'm exhausted so I'm going to put my groceries, get dinner, and going to bed."

"**Sounds like a plan," **he muttered, sounding just as tired as I was.

"What about the pranking I'm supposed to do?" I opened my scroll, releasing the objects inside.

"**After today? I think we've had enough crazy ideas for one week."**

"So you're letting me off the hook?"

"**It's more like I'm considering that stunt you pulled to be close enough to a prank to satisfy the weekly quota."**

"Yippy," I said unenthusiastically. "I think I'd prefer the pranks."


	18. Chapter 18

Hey everyone, sorry this chapter wasn't done last week, it gave me quite a bit of trouble since I didn't quite know where it was going and ended up rewriting it twice. Anyways, on a happy note, I'm proud to announce this story now has over 50,000 views and over 500 followers. So thanks everyone :) Another thing is that you all shouldn't be too surprised if some of my chapters take 2 weeks to write. I'll make sure that it doesn't take any longer than that. But one week is my goal.

to Story Artist: 1st of all, thanks for reviewing. 2nd, I don't mind questions but I tend not to answer questions that lead to blatant spoilers. So, I'll try to answer yours the best I can without doing so. 1) I'm not sure if Fu will be overprotective, we'll have to wait and see. 2) No, I believe he has enough to compensate for his sight without a seeing eye dog. 3) I won't be bashing them perpously. I will admit that none of them have a very positive roll tho. and 4) since I kind of need Obito later I'll probably have his story be about the same as it was. I hope I answered all your questions. Let me know if you have any others.. :)

So, hope you enjoy,

Trouble 1  
~~~~~~~~

! ! ! !THE NEXT MORNING! ! ! !

I let out a yawn as I sat, cross-legged in the sand. I really should have used to these morning training sessions but I had a hard time shaking my drowsiness when my sensei barely gave me time to get ready this morning.

"Ok, Naruto!" Jiraya seemed more enthusiastic than usual. "Today, I'm going to teach you how to summon toads."

"Why would I want to summon a frog?"

"Toad!"

"Whatever," I yawned. "Can't we focus on something else?"

"Why would we do that? Toads are the best!"

"What am I going to do with a toad against Neji?" I asked.

He placed his hands on his hips in disapproval.

"And what do _you _think would be useful, hmm?"

I thought for a moment, knowing there was something that needed to be addressed but not remembering what.

"**How about doing something to make it harder for that stalker of yours to sneak up on you?" **The Kyubi suggested in a bored tone of voice.

"_Like what?"_

"**Oh, I don't know, maybe what Jiraya thought you were creating your jutsu for two weeks ago? Just a thought."**

I didn't say anything. He sighed.

"**The fake byakugan you moron."**

"Finishing my jutsu would help." I gestured impatiently, hoping he didn't think much on my hesitation. There was silence from the other man as he just stood there. "I wanted it to copy the byakugan so I can level the playing field a bit. Don't you remember?"

"Huh? Oh yeah, that's right." He scratched the back of his head for a moment before his hand dropped tentatively to his side. I gave him a suspicious look as he continued. "I suppose we can do that, but I really think you should learn the summoning as well."

"Why?"

"You can't fight with shadow clones alone." I watched him silently, knowing he was right. After a few seconds he must have realized I had nothing to say and continued. "So, here's how we'll do this. I'll teach you the summons in the morning, then after lunch we'll work on the new versions of…uh, what's it called again?"

"What?" I asked, giving him a confused look.

"I forgot what you named it," he admitted. I stared back at him blankly. "You did name your jutsu, right?"

"What? Yeah, of course I did?" I exclaimed. "It's, uh, I call it the…I forgot."

"Oh yes, the famous I-Forgot Jutsu. How could I have not remembered its name?" Jiraya said, the sarcasm heavy in his voice. "It's always followed closely by the What's-It-Called Jutsu and the It-Had-a-cool-Name, I-Swear Jutsu."

"No, I forgot to name it." Jiraya sighed in response.

"Of course you did," Jiraya sighed. "I guess we'll be figuring that out in the afternoon as well. Does that sound good?"

"Yeah, I guess," I answered, climbing to my feet. "What do I have to do for this training? More stuff with leaves? Almost drowning in the lake again? Both?"

"We shall see." Jiraya chucked lightly.

Before I could ask what that meant, he bit his thumb and ran his hands through a number of signs faster than my jutsu was able to catch.

"Summoning Jutsu!" he shouted as he slammed his palm onto the ground.

There was a loud poof sound before my sensei disappeared behind what I assumed had to be a cloud of smoke. Only when it finally cleared, did I see that he was now twice as tall due to the fact he was standing on a large, toad shaped figure.

"Show off," I muttered, earning a huff of dismay from Jiraya.

"I'll have you know that was completely necessary to get the contract here." Jiraya jumped off the toad, taking a scroll the size of his arm out of its mouth.

"Contract?" I asked tentatively.

"Yes, Naruto, a contract." He walked towards me a few steps then rolled it open in front of me. "When one wants to summon an animal like this they have to sign a contract."

"I'm not going to end up signing my soul away or something, am I?" I asked, only half joking. The paper was making me really nervous. After all, I might be able to do a lot of things with the unnamed jutsu, but reading wasn't one of them.

"No, nothing like that," he said with a chuckle. "It's more for their own protection than anything else. Most of them insure that you do not mean to do them harm or won't set them up for something malicious. Of course, there are others that add things to it. For instance, the Snake summons demand a sacrifice every time you summon one of the largest ones. But, don't worry, the toads have nothing of that sorts in their contract."

"That's good." I didn't look up as I continued to stare at what easily could have been a blank piece of paper in front of me.

"Damn straight it is." Jiraya kneeled on the other side of the scroll, looking down at it as well. "First, pick the hand you want to summon with, preferably your dominant one. Then you bite your thumb and sign your name in blood."

I nodded in response, but didn't move to follow any of it. He didn't seem to notice because he just kept explaining.

"Unfortunately the last person to sigh this wasn't exactly neat so you should probably sigh it about here." Jiraya pointed at the part of the scroll directly in front of me.

I nodded again, hiding a nervous gulp as I slowly bit my right thumb. I took my time as I tried to convince myself that this was going to be easy. All I was doing was writing my name straight down. There was nothing difficult to it.

I put my left hand down close to where Jiraya was pointing, hoping he'd think it was to keep the paper steady. He stopped pointing, leaving my hand as the only thing that told me where I was supposed to sign. I hesitated again before putting my thumb to the paper and writing my name the best I could.

When I was done, I gave a small sigh of relief and watched Jiraya examine my signature.

"Always messy. Always. I swear I've never seen a twelve year old's signature that was neat," he said, shaking his head. "Anyways, just get a bit of blood on each of your fingertips and press them down right here."

He pointed at the bottom of the paper.

"Ok." I nodded, pressing each of my fingers against my thumb before placing them all down where he had pointed. "Is that all?"

"For the contract, yes." Jiraya rolled the scroll back up again with a small kick and picking it up. "Now, it's time to summon."

"Um, and how do I do that?"

"Oh yeah, didn't teach you that yet, did I?" He asked, scratching his head in an embarrassed manor. "Preform the signs 'boar, dog, bird, monkey, and ram' then slam your right hand onto the pavement like I did. If you have the right balance of chakra, then you can easily summon a toad as large as this guy."

Jiraya patted the toad on the head as he passed it the scroll.

"Of course it also takes quite a bit of chakra, but I'm sure you won't have a problem with that," Jiraya said with a chuckle. "Well, go ahead. Try it out."

"Here goes nothing," I muttered.

I positioned myself so I was kneeling on the ground then focused on my hands as I carefully went through each of the five symbols need. Only when they were complete did I start putting chakra into it, molding it like it felt it should be. I smirked as I brought my hands apart, finding the jutsu a lot easier than signing the stupid contract.

"Summoning jutsu!" I shouted, slamming my hand onto the ground.

There was a large poof of smoke that forced me back onto my butt. I coughed and waved the smoke away the best I could. Once it had dispersed, I saw that I had, indeed, summoned a toad. If you could consider an inch long tadpole with two stubby rear legs a toad.

Jiraya, his toad, and I stared at it for a while, none of us saying much. The only sound I heard was the Kyubi laughing quite loudly while we sat there.

"Is that it?" I asked.

"What did you expect, to summon Gambuta on your first attempt? This kind of stuff takes lots of practice, and time."

"I was hoping to be done in an hour, or at least by lunch today."

"No dice kid. There is no way you can completely learn such an awesome jutsu in just a few hours," Jiraya explained. He motioned towards his toad that it could leave, causing another poof of smoke to appear in its wake. The small tadpole followed suit soon after. "You better get started."

I sighed as I got back to work.

! ! ! !FOUR HOURS LATER! ! ! !

Jiraya watched as the smoke cleared from around his student revealing the newest of the uncountable number of toads he summoned today. This particular one was about two inches long with four legs, and a tail. Soon after, Naruto flopped onto the sand and let out a frustrated groan.

"Why can't that tail just go away!?" He exclaimed, as the young toad returned home with a poof.

"I told you, it takes work," Jiraya said with a sigh.

He was lounging on a picnic blanket, spending his spare time writing in a notebook. Or he would be, if he had anything to write. Even after four hours of work, the only thing on the page was a few shapeless doodles.

"I've spent all morning on this and all that's happened is that they now have four legs!"

"At least you're improving," he said.

"But it's so slow!"

"Stop complaining and start working."

"I'm going to bleed to death before I summon a real toad." Jiraya heard him mutter.

"No you won't," Jiraya said. He watched as the boy bit his thumb for probably the millionth time that day. For some reason the wound kept healing up almost as soon as the jutsu was finished.

"Why not?" Naruto said as he ran through the hand signs almost with ease.

"Because I'm pretty sure the Kyubi's pride would be hurt if he let you die in a stupid way. And, trust me, bleeding to death from spamming half formed toads would no doubt fall under that category."

Jiraya received an annoyed look from his pupil as Naruto finishing the jutsu with an unenthusiastic statement of its name. Jiraya waited for the smoke to get out of the way again only to see another four-legged tadpole.

"The tails a bit shorter," he said, looking at it briefly before turning back to his notebook. Though, he did make sure to keep his eyes on his student.

The small toad stayed for a moment before disappearing yet again. Naruto only stood there for a little bit, looking more frustrated now than he did when he thought Jiraya was watching him. Naruto seemed to be trying to convince himself to start again when Jiraya heard his watch vibrate, stopping the boy in his tracks. Naruto held his arm up and ran his thumb over the watch, checking the time as his sensei pretended not to notice.

"Time for lunch," the boy said as he walked over to the picnic blanket and sat down. "What'ya got?"

Jiraya put aside his notebook, pulled out storage seal, and released a pile of sandwiches.

"Sandwiches again?" Naruto asked, staring at the food.

"Well maybe if you used your manners once in a while I would have brought something different," he retorted, trying to give Naruto a pointed look. He was thoroughly ignored.

It took him a moment to remember that Naruto probably couldn't see said look. His jutsu worked only so well, and, from what Jiraya has seen, facial features weren't part of what it could pick up.

Naruto grumbled as he grabbed a sandwich and started eating it in a somewhat grumpy manor. And if what Jiraya heard about yesterday was true for his student, he had every right to be. If Jiraya had been in the same situation, well he probably would have enjoyed the fact that a woman was stealing all his clothes, but then again, he wasn't a twelve year old kid anymore.

Jiraya sighed, grabbing one of the sandwiches just as Naruto was going for seconds. The boy was doing surprisingly well for someone who hasn't been blind for more than a few weeks. It was pretty impressive, watching him train as if it wasn't even a problem. Despite everything Jiraya had thrown at him, the only thing that has tripped him up so far was the contract.

"Um, sensei?" Naruto asked, snapping Jiraya out of his thoughts. He looked over at the boy to see him staring at the half-eaten sandwich he was holding in his lap.

"What? You going to complain about the bread being stale or something?" Naruto's head lowered a few inches more, like a guilty flinch.

"No, um…I'm sorry," Naruto muttered, Jiraya barely catching the words.

"What was that? I don't think I heard you," Jiraya teased, getting Naruto to lift his head to glare at him.

"I _said _I'm sorry. I shouldn't have complained so much about you teaching me a new jutsu," Naruto explained, looking tentative once again. "It's a really cool jutsu and I was being grumpy for no reason."

"First I'll say, you're apology is accepted. Second, who put you up to this?"

Naruto gave him a startled look that he quickly tried to cover up.

"What? I don't know what you're talking about."

"You're a strong willed boy who doesn't like to admit when he's wrong. So, who made you admit it now, to me?" Naruto stayed silent. "It was the Kyubi wasn't it?"

"He said if I didn't stop whinning like a baby, he was going to treat me like one," Naruto said with a glare. "He then talked to me only in baby talk for the next five minutes."

"Well, you know you're definitely wrong when you get lectured by a demon."

"Yeah, tell me about it." Naruto huffed in annoyance. "And thanks for teaching me to summon toads. I know you didn't need to or anything, so thanks. I've always liked toads."

"You're welcome," Jiraya responded, a smile spreading across his face. "Do you feel like stopping at Ichiraku's after training?"

Naruto's attention perked considerably.

"Seriously?"

"Only if you don't complain anymore, because I will take back my offer if I hear any more of that today. Is that clear?"

"Hai sensei!"

"Now finish eating so we can get back to work," Jiraya said unnecessarily as he saw Naruto start to scarf down the rest of his sandwich.


	19. Chapter 19

Hey everyone, thanks for the reviews. I'm very happy with how happy with how much everyone is enjoying this story. So thanks again! Also, I'm going to apologize for the length, especially after making you wait for two weeks. And again for the fact that I will be unable to post a chapter next week either. I'm going to have spotty internet at best for the next week so posting anything isn't going to work. But I will make the next chapter worth your while tho. So don't ditch this story just yet :)

Anyways, I hope you enjoy,

Trouble 1  
~~~~~~~~

! ! ! !FIVE HOURS LATER! ! ! !

"Wavy chakra jutsu," I suggested.

We were done for the day and finally on our way to the ramen stand. I didn't complain at all, no matter what ridiculous training he put me through, which just happened to be me sitting there trying to keep a crown of coins sticking around my head. He didn't even bother to tell me why, but I kept quiet. Ramen was on the line.

"Too strange," Jiraya shot down. "Radar jutsu."

"Too boring," I answered. "Bat sight jutsu."

"Doesn't make sense." Jiraya shook his head. "The third eye justu."

"That's not too bad," I said in thought. I was interrupted by the kyubi's chuckling.

"**Yeah, that will do nicely. If you change your name to Tien."**

"But it amuses the kyubi too much so we have to find something else," I said with a sigh while said fox muttered about 'ruining his fun.' "There's got to be a really good name for that justu."

Having just reached the ramen stand, I sat down at one of the stools as my sensei followed suit.

"Yeah, it's out there somewhere. We just have to find it," he answered, sounding as frustrated as I was.

"Find what?" Ayme asked as she came over to take our orders. "Naruto, did you leave your book somewhere again?"

"No, it's in my pouch." I flashed her the book before putting it back where I had it.

"We're trying to find a name for the new jutsu he created," Jiraya explained. "And we haven't had any luck so far."

"Naruto created a jutsu?" Ayme grinned excitedly.

"Well, I helped."

"Good job Naruto, I'm proud of you." She said, making me sit a little taller out of pride. "To celebrate, you're first round of ramen's on us."

"Really?" I asked as excited as she was.

"Of course. What type?"

"Beef!" I exclaimed. "Arigato Ayme!"

"You're welcome," she said before turning to Jiraya. "And you?"

"I'll have a miso," Jiraya answered.

"Alright, I'll return with your order as soon as they're done." She smiled wide again before going to her father and giving him the order.

Jiraya and I sat there silently, the only sound between us being the scratch of his pen on paper and the tap of my leg twitching impatiently. After a few minutes I'd had enough of it.

"Ero-senin," I called, getting his attention. His pen froze before he slowly turned to look at me. I continued before he could complain. "You didn't tell me why I had to keep those coins stuck to my head."

"No, I didn't." He let out an annoyed sigh and continued writing, not bothering to continue.

"Why?"

"Why is an onion." He didn't even look up from his paper as I stared at him in confusion.

"What?"

"'Why' is an onion," he repeated. I didn't say anything as he sighed. "The more you ask 'why' the more layers there are. Like an onion."

"I don't get it."

"Of course you don't." Jiraya shook his head. "Anyways, the coin crown was a training exercise."

"I know that," I told him, glad to get back to a subject that didn't involve strange vegetables. "But why did you have me do it? What purpose does it do other than make me look ridiculous?"

"It was to help your chakra get used to focusing in several places at once for the new version of your…uh, 'Chakra Location' Jutsu."

"Nope, sounds like it finds chakra," I responded before going back to the question at hand. "But why does my chakra need to do that?"

"Think about it kid, if you want to see all over using that jutsu, what would you do?" He waited for me to answer but nothing was coming to mind. "Alright, your jutsu acts like an eyeball, right? It can only see pick up what is in front of it."

"Yeah."

"So, if you wanted to be able to see behind you without a dojutsu, what would you do?"

"Well, I'd probably just create a shadow clone and have him stand back-to-back with me so he could tell me what was going on. It would give me another set of eyes on the target," I answered. Jiraya gestured for me to continue. I gave him another confused look.

"And how would you do that with your jutsu?"

"Do you mean more focus points?"

"Bingo," he said with a smirk. "You will need four of them for what you want to do; one on each side of your head."

"That makes sense, but why the coins? Why couldn't you just use leaves like before?"

"The coins are harder to keep on your head and you needed more of a challenge." Jiraya closed his notebook and placed his pen on top it. "Plus, I believe you've gotten used to the leaves."

I was just about to continue when I saw Ayme coming towards us out of the corner of my vision. She was carrying what had to be bowls of ramen that were to be delivered. I turned towards her, an excited smile spreading across my face.

"Here you go," she said cheerfully as she placed the four bowls their appropriate owners. "I hope you enjoy."

"Arigato!" I exclaimed as I lunged for the chopsticks, knocking the cup over in the process. "Sorry."

"That's alright," Ayme said already picking up the chopsticks. I tried to help her but couldn't see the pieces of wood well enough to do so. She ended up cleaning up most of them while I guiltily went back to my ramen. "So, what's this new jutsu of yours?"

"Well, it doesn't have a name yet," I replied around my ramen.

"Don't talk with your mouth full." Jiraya didn't even look at me as he reprimanded me. "It's rude."

I glared at him, but still swallowed what I had in my mouth before continuing.

"Anyways, I don't know what to call it but it kinda acts like a radar. I send out waves of chakra that return when they hit something and let me know what's around me." I took a bite of ramen then continued. "I'm working on a more advance version that sends the waves out in all directions."

"That's pretty cool," she said, her voice smiling. "So it's kinda like echo location, but with chakra echoes. Right?" I froze at her words, my chopsticks almost falling out of my hand. There was a clatter of wood against ceramic that told me that Jiraya's chopsticks actually did fall. Neither of us spoke as we turned to stare at each other in awe.

"Chakra echoes?" Jiraya questioned.

"Chakra echoes," I answered, excitement making its way into my voice.

"What?" Ayme looked between the two of us, her voice confused. "Did I say something wrong?"

"No, Ayme. You're a genius!" I threw my arms in the air, almost knocking myself off the stool in the process. "It's the perfect name! Chakra Echo Jutsu!"

"Well, I'm glad I could help." She placed the cup of chopsticks back onto the table and went about her business.

"That is a very good name," Jiraya replied his chopsticks full of noodles waiting in front of his mouth. "She has a nack for this type of stuff."

I hummed in acknowledgment as I ate, to keep from talking with my mouth full again.

"So, what do you think the new one should be called?" I paused in my eating, wide eyed.

"Damn it!"


	20. Chapter 20

Hey everyone! I'm really sorry about the week long delay. A week or two ago I accidentally hit my head against the sharp side of a car. I ended up with staples and just enough of a concussion to make me unable to write for the rest of the week. But I'm fine now and am getting back on schedual again. Anyways, I want to say thanks to everyone for sticking with this story. It's now well over 60,000 views and almost 600 followers, which is really exciting for me. So thanks again :). And to anyone that commented on the last chapter, I'll try to get back to you sometime soon. I haven't forgotten.

So, as always,

Hope you enjoy,

Trouble 1  
~~~~~~~~

! ! ! ! FIVE DAYS LATER ! ! ! !

I wiped sweat off my forehead as examined the new toad I just summoned. I focused really hard on it, trying to figure out if it was a full toad or just another tadpole with legs. Over the past couple days it had been getting progressively harder and harder to tell. There had been a few yesterday that were actual toads, but just barely, and I couldn't summon them consistently. Which is why, at 7:30 in the morning, I was practicing before Jiraya came to pick me up for the day.

I knelt down to get a better look at him. From what I could see, he didn't have a tail, but even with all the practicing I had doing with my Chakra Echoes I still was missing details. I had a feeling that it would never pick up everything like I had hoped it would. This was exactly why I didn't fully trust it when trying to find tails on toads.

While the toad had his back to me, I poked his butt. He spun around with a loud croak of complaint, but he didn't have a tail.

"Yes! No tail!" I shouted, throwing my hands in the air. The toad let out an angry ribbit before hitting me right in my focus point. Everything went black for a moment as I was knocked back on my own butt. When my vision returned I saw the toad stare at me before disappearing into a poof of smoke.

"Well you didn't have to be so rude about it!" I glared at the spot he used to be for a moment before sitting cross-legged on the ground. "Ok, so that's seven in a row now. I think I've actually got this down!"

"**Woopty do," **they Kyubi said unenthusiastic-ally.

"Oh shut it. This is important."

"**Oh yes, because your life will definitely hinge on your ability to make a toad the size of your palm appear out of thin air."**

"It's important to me," I muttered. I climbed back to my feet before beginning the search for clean clothes.

"**You should be working on your fake-byakugan in your free time."**

"I have been, and you know it." I knelt down and searched through the clothes pile.

I was able to pick out some clean pants, shirt, and underwear but there was no clean jacket. In fact out of the seven wind suits I owned, there were only three jackets left that the other jinchuriki hadn't stolen yet. After the goggles incident last week she's decided to keep my jacket every time she steals it. Luckily I've only ran into her four times in the last week.

"**Two simultaneous points isn't good enough."**

"I know! Back off already. I'm doing the best I can," I exclaimed, gathering my clothes and heading to the bathroom for a really quick shower. "You should be glad I can see behind me. It's saved me twice this week after all."

"**And, if you could see on your right and left too then you'd still have three out of those four jackets she took."**

"If you hadn't been so distracting yesterday, she wouldn't have the last one either."

I set my clean clothes on top the toilet and ran my fingers across the wall to make sure the towel was on its hook. The thing was so thin that sometimes I couldn't even pick it up. I stripped out of my clothes and began fiddling with the knobs, hoping I actually had some hot water today.

"**Oh, so you're allowed to be loud all the time, yet I do it and I'm 'distracting' and it 'costs you a coat'. I see how it is."**

"You were demanding that I steal Sauske's remote so I can mess with his TV on my way home every night." I rolled my eyes as I entered the shower. "That is not a good excu-COLD!"

"**Sometimes the best pranks are the simplest," **the Kyubi said with a chuckle. **"For instance, your landlord turning off your water at random points in the week could easily be considered a good prank. If he wasn't actually trying to be an asshole. Looks like you have a cold shower ahead of you."**

"Shut up," I muttered, already starting to rush through my routine.

! ! ! !20 MINUTES LATER! ! ! !

I was just finishing my cereal when Jiraya let himself in. I heard his footsteps stop suddenly in my foyer, not moving for a moment. In the silence, I took a bite of my breakfast, my spoon shaking.

"Naruto, why are you wearing three jackets?" Jiraya asked.

"No hot water," I murmured around chattering teeth.

"But three jackets? Sounds like a little much." Jiraya's footsteps started up again, making their way towards the table. "It's almost summer, after all."

"That water was really cold," I answered as he finally came into sight. I watched him sit at the other end of the table, facing me. "I wouldn't be surprised if my water's coming straight out of a freezer instead of a water heater."

"From what you've told me, I wouldn't be either." He shook his head slowly, before turning his attention back towards me. "Ready to go?"

"What are we doing today?" I asked, focusing my sight on my bowl.

If I looked really close I could just find the outlines to the stray pieces of cereal floating around. That meant my Chakra Echoes were becoming more refined, since it was only a few days ago that I had trouble with chopsticks.

"Oh, just a little training experiment. That's all," Jiraya answered as I pretended not to notice the slight hesitation in the statement. "It's something I thought would help you with summoning toads, since you're having trouble and all."

"I summoned seven full toads this morning. Does that get me out of the experiment?"

"What size were they?"

"As big as my fist," I said proudly. I saw his head turn to look at one of my hands for a moment.

"You're hands are small," he stated flatly.

"They are not!" I exclaimed. "Plus, those are the biggest toads I've summoned so far. And consistently!"

"I get it, you're proud of yourself," Jiraya said with a sigh. "And if you weren't on such a time crunch I'd think this was great progress. But you have maybe a week left before the final phase and the skill isn't even usable. Therefore, you need a bit of help."

I frowned, eagerly searching for some way he could be wrong. He wasn't.

"Fine," I admitted as I stripped off the spare coats. "What is this experiment of yours?"

"Oh you know, nothing much," he said. I raised an eyebrow at his failing nonchalant tone.

"Is it dangerous?"

There was a pause.

"Time to go!"

"Huh?"

I watched as he reached across the table and grabbed my arm right before he shunshined us both away. With a poof I was sitting on the ground, my vision wavering in transfer.

When it finally stabilized, I noticed we were somewhere I've never seen before. This place seemed similar to the training grounds, yet wasn't. What I meant was that it smelled like where we go every day, but instead of a hot spring and sand, there were trees and bushes. In fact, the foliage was so dense that I couldn't see very far in any direction.

"Uh, sensei? This doesn't look like our normal training grounds," I said wearily.

"That's good. Because it's not," he stated.

I got up off the ground, dusted myself off, and dropped my spoon in the process.

"You could have at least let me put my dishes away," I told him as I picked up the spoon and waved it at him. "Now I'm going to lose one of my two spoons and my apartments going to smell like old milk."

"Back to complaining again?"

"No, I'm just telling you. I don't want to lose my silverware and I don't like my apartment smelling like old milk."

"Sounds like complaining to me."

I sighed in exasperation, not wanting to continue this conversation.

"Where are we sensei? And why are we here?"

"It's for your new training."

"Which is...?"

"Something I hope will work," he said, artfully avoiding the question.

"Sensei! How am I supposed to do this training if you don't tell me what it is?"

"Like this."

I was just about to give him a confused look when he raised a finger and poked my forehead. The tap surprisingly sent stumbling backwards a few feet and my vision swimming again. I took a few more steps backwards to try to keep him from doing so again, only to find nothing under one of my feet.

Before I knew what had happened, I started falling backwards. I panicked, trying to get the Chakra Echoes started again, but to no avail. I was moving so quickly that by the time the echoes were on their way back I was long gone. So, now I was not only falling, but I had no idea what I was falling into.

I yelled, the unknown making me fearful. I had no way of knowing how long I was going to fall, or even what was down there that would, eventually, stop it. For all I know, this chasm could go on forever, never ending, which, I suppose, is better than it ending.

I was just running through what I could possibly do to stop this when I heard a deep, laughter echoing through my head.

"What the hell are you laughing at!?" I shouted at him, causing the Kyubi only to laugh harder. "I am falling to my death at this very moment and all you can do is laugh! Help me damn it!"

**"Don't think so," **he said around his laughter.

"Why not! I could die!"

**"Yes, you could,"** his laughter devolving to chuckles.

"Then why aren't you helping me!? I thought you didn't want me to die!"

**"I never said that."**

"What about that whole stupid death thing!"

**"Never said that either, your sensei did."**

"That's it! I'm coming in there!" I yelled.

"**You don't know how, kit."**

"I'm desperate! I'll figure something out!"

I closed my eyes, ignoring everything, from the whispered "obviously" that came from the Kyubi, to the falling sensation I still felt. Everything was tuned out as I tried my best to enter my own mindscape.

I don't know whether it was the need to get there or just that I've just improved a lot since the last time I tried, but somehow, when I opened my eyes again, the view of the sewers was there to greet me. I grinned slightly, I mean I know that sewer pipes aren't the best thing to see on their own, but after seeing nothing but the pale forms my Chakra Echoes come back with, I didn't really mind.

It didn't take me long to find the kyubi. After all, it's not that hard to find a giant fox behind a giant gate.

"Told you I would," I said. Crossing my arms I glared at the fox in front of me. He yawned, his tails swishing behind him were the only indication of his previous amusement.

"**And what an accomplishment that was, accessing your own mind. You should be so proud of yourself,"**

"Don't give me sarcasm, I'm falling to my death and really don't need your flack."

"**Are you sure? I find that it makes situations like this so much better."**

"Why won't you help me?!"

"**You seem to forget that I'm, essentially a demon. I do this type of stuff on a whim."**

I closed my eyes, my eyelid twitching in annoyance. I took a calming breath before opening my eyes and continuing.

"And what 'whim' is it that keeping you from helping me NOT die!"

"**It's Tuesday,"** he said. My jaw dropped as I stared at him in disbelief. **"Also because you're supposed to do that thing on Tuesdays that you haven't done yet."**

"The pranks?"

"**Yes."**

"You're refusing to help me because I haven't done a prank!?"

"**Yes."**

"It's eight in the morning! I haven't had time for pranks!"

"**That's your problem, not mine."**

"Then how the hell am I not supposed to die!?" I exclaimed, pulling at my hair with both hands. "I could be dead already just from talking to you and not even know it."

"**This is your mind, kit. Everything that happens here, happens at the speed of thought. Therefore, you could be an inch from the bottom and not know it in here for several more hours."**

"Oh," I said, processing this information. "But I can't stay here forever."

"**For once, you're right."**

"Then what am I supposed to do?" I flopped down to sit in the sewer water as I crossed my arms once again. "The only thing I can think of is spamming a tone of clones to break my fall, but with all this training, my chakra hasn't had time to replenish much at all. At this point I couldn't make enough clones to clean my room."

"**Maybe you could use that useless jutsu to save yourself. You know, the I-can-summon-toads-the-size-of-my-tiny-palm jutsu."**

"Maybe I will!" I exclaimed. The Kyubi flashed a grin, as if calling my bluff. Or what had started as one.

"**Oh, what are you going to do, spawn a tone of those small toads to land on? I doubt the toad community would be very happy about that."**

"No," I said simply, a smile spreading across my own face. "I'll summon one big one?"

"**With what chakra?"**

"Yours, of course."


	21. Chapter 21

Hey everyone, I'm back. Apologies for the shortness of the chapter, I had some trouble writing it and finding time to do so. I just started a new job and it's really taking a lot out of me. I figured you guys would rather have the chapter on time and a tad short then not getting it for another week. Hopefully I guessed right, and the quality isn't too bad. I kinda just finished the last part and almost fell asleep in my chair in the process. Have no fear, once I catch up to what I already have written then I'll spend some time editing.

Anyways, thanks for the reviews. I'll see about responding tomorrow. Don't be surprised if you get a response to the 19th chapter as well, since I haven't actually done those yet. As I've said, I've been quite busy.

So, Hope you enjoy,

Trouble 1  
~~~~~~~~

The Kyubi stared at me for a moment.

"**Mind repeating that? I must be having a hard time hearing today." **He lifted one of his giant paws and used his pinky claw to clean out his ear. **"It was strange, I could have sworn you said you'd be using MY chakra."**

"I did."

There was another pause.

"**So tell me, what the hell gave you the impression I'd just hand over my chakra after saying I wasn't going to help you?"**

"You don't have a choice."

"**I believe I do, that's why it's my chakra."**

"But you're in my body. That makes it my chakra by default."

"**That's not how it works you little brat and you know it," **The Kyubi growled, narrowing his eyes at me. But I stood firm, I was not about to be intimidated in my own mind.

"Sounds right to me," I said, staring down the fox in front of me. "My body, my chakra."

"**I should let you die for your impertinence."**

"But letting me die would make you look bad."

"**Killing a human has never been held against me before, why should it now?"**

I paused for a moment, trying to figure out if he told the truth.

"You're bluffing," I decided, my voice not sounding all too sure of itself. The Kyubi only grinned, making me nervous for the first time since this conversation started.

"**Am I? I thought I couldn't lie."** The Kyubi lowered his head so his eyes were level with mine. **"Doesn't that mean that I can't bluff either?"**

I stuttered, trying to come up with something to say, but his unblinking gaze made it very difficult to do so. After hearing only a few strange sounds come out of my mouth, the Kyubi continued with a chuckle.

"**Therefore, if I was bluffing now, that means I would have to have lied about not being able to do so. Then, you'd have to doubt every word I've said so far."**

My eyes widened as I realized that he was telling the truth. If he really had fooled me all this time then there was nothing he could have said that I would be able to believe completely. I might as well have let him out when I first met him.

I felt my hands start to shake as brief glimpses of the terror crossed my mind. Buildings tumbling down and people screaming as the Kyubi destroyed all he could, all because I believed him.

"**I see you're starting to understand," **The Kyubi said, his voice rumbling through the sewer ominously. **"How believing one false statement has the potential to destroy everything you hold dear. Because if I'm every free of you, truly free, I will kill those who all of those responsible for locking me away."**

The grin was gone from his face by the time he reached his last words.

"**So tell me, kit," **he continued, his eyes still locked with mine. **"Was I bluffing? Am I still bluffing?"**

"I-I…I don't-"

"**You don't what? You don't know? I'm sorry, that's not an answer I can except. It's either yes, I'm bluffing about letting you die, or I'm not. After all, you don't have the time for indecision. You could go splat any moment now."**

"But you said I had time."

"**I did say, and according to you I could be untrustworthy and lying about anything. Are you really willing to take that chance?"**

Thoughts raced by as I tried to figure out an answer to his question. Was lying? Was he telling the truth? Either could be true! He could easily be incapable of lying as he could-

My mind stopped, a spark of an idea appearing. It wasn't anything concrete or anything close to an answer, just something I noticed that didn't seem right. He said 'could' a lot. Could, and would, and if; those are all words he'd used more than once in this conversation, and I doubt there's even one of those statements without one.

"You are bluffing," I finally said, feeling confident yet again.

**"Oh, so I can lie?"**

"There's a difference between lie and bluff." I smirked at him as I went to explain. "Bluffing is leading someone in different direction, lying is saying something false. You can bluff without lying, that's what you've been teaching me all month after all."

The fox narrowed his eyes at me, but I wasn't done just yet.

"So, you were bluffing when you said you'd let me die and haven't stopped since."

**"Is that your final answer?"**

"Yes."

The Kyubi sighed, relaxing back into a less threatening posture.

**"Well, I can't really say that you haven't learned anything," **he said, his voice not echoing as much. **"Go, save yourself from becoming a bug splat at the bottom of a canyon."**

"Are you going to give me the chakra?" I asked.

**"But of course, you can have all the chakra you need,"** he said with a sly grin. Before I could ask what he meant by that I was thrown out of my mind scape.

I felt myself falling yet again, surrounded by darkness even after I opened my eyes. But I didn't waste any time moping about it, instead I immediately bit my thumb and started running through the hand symbols.

"Summoning Jutsu!" I shouted, slamming my hand down where the ground would have been.

I heard a poof as I smelled smoke surround me. Just as I felt the smoke start to disappear, I landed on something springy. I bounced a few times before I finally settled on the surface. I wasn't falling anymore, so I had to assume that whatever I had summoned had done something to fix that.

Now that my surroundings weren't rushing by me at lightning speed, I tried my jutsu again to see if it worked. Bluish-grey forms rushed to meet me, showing me the walls covered in sharp spikes as well as the huge form I had landed on.

"Woah," I said, finally getting a good look at the toad I summoned. It was huge! The being easily took over the width of the cavern, which was huge in itself. "It worked!"

I scrambled to my feet and walked towards the back end of the creature. Once I was there, I knelt down, staring at its rear. It didn't look like it had a tail, but I wanted to be sure. I glanced back towards its head, seeing it was more preoccupied with its surroundings than with me. So I turned forward again before touching its but.

"What the hell!" it exclaimed in a deep, gravelly voice.

Before I could celebrate the lack of a tail, or even be surprised that it talked, it spun around, almost sending me falling once again. I had slid off the edge of the giant toad, only able to keep myself from tumbling completely off by using chakra to stick to his side.

"Who dares touch me?" he demanded.

I stayed silent, not wanting to alert him to my presence.

"I know you're there, whoever you are, you can't hide from me." Scared of what would happen if I spoke, I didn't say a word. "Either come forward, or I leave."

"Sorry! Sorry!" I said, scrambling forward towards his face until I was standing on his nose. "Please don't leave, you're the only thing keeping me from falling to death."

"Is that why Jiraya summoned me? To save a tiny human?"

"Jiraya didn't summon you, I did!" I said, my apologetic tone all but forgotten. "I needed something to break my fall other than sharp rocks."

He stared at me cross-eyed for a moment before he broke out in a shaking laughter that almost made me lose my footing.

"That's hilarious!" he exclaimed in his amusement. "A brat like you, summoning me? That's the best damn joke I've heard since Jiraya tried to pass off his books as fine literature!"

"But I did! I swear it!"

"I don't believe you."

"Well it's true." I crossed my arms indignantly. "Ero-senin shoved me down this ravine for some reason and I couldn't stop myself on my own so I did the last thing I could do and summoned you, so you better start believing me."

"Are you trying to order me around?" he asked, his eyes narrowing.

"…Maybe. I haven't decided yet."

"Do you have any idea who I am?"

"Not in the slightest. Does it even matter?"

"I'm Gamabunta you brat!" he exclaimed. I stared at him as I tried to figure out what that meant. "I'm the chief toad and you're trying to order me around? I don't think so!"

I couldn't stop my jaw from dropping as I heard this.

"_How much chakra did you give me?!" _I demanded the kyubi. He only chuckled knowingly mumbled something about wishing he had snacks to watch the show.

"Other than your ego getting in the way, why can't you acknowledge that I summoned you?"

"Because it's physically impossible. You don't have enough chakra, your control is too bad, and you haven't even gotten the summoning procedure mastered yet. There is no way you could have brought me here on your own accord."

"Now listen here, you! I'm Uzumaki Naruto, future hokage! I have more chakra then I know what to do with and have enough control to stick six coins around my head while standing on water! As for the summoning procedure, I am able to consistently summon real toads and not those almost-toad tadpoles!"

"Is that so?"

"Yes, and as the guy that summoned you, I demand to be taken out of this ravine."

"Tell me one thing first," Gamabunta said, giving me a strange look. "What the hell gave you the impression that the summoner is in control? And, better yet, what made you think a blind brat like you can do so to me?"


	22. Chapter 22

Hey everyone, sorry about the late post. It's been extremely busy on my side and I've barely had a chance to write at all. Anyways, thanks for all the reviews. You guys are awesome! Also, in answer to the Guest review, have no fear I will be moving on with the story soon enough. I have a one more chapter before I start with the final segment of the exams.

So, I think that's all.

Hope you enjoy,

Trouble 1  
~~~~~~~~

"What?" I questioned as I stared at the toad blankly.

"Oh don't play dumb with me. I can feel those chakra waves hit me every time you send them out. You're blinder than a bat summons and even if did have enough chakra to bring me here, you'd never have been able to sign your name."

"I can sign my name just fine!" I shouted in defense. "It was a little messy but it was still there!"

"There's no way a blind kid could have summoned me."

"My sight has nothing to do with this!"

"Truthfully I don't care whether you're blind, deaf, or crippled. Though, I wouldn't mind if you were mute at the moment, but that's beside the point. The point is that you're a cocky shrimp that thinks just because I came when you asked means that you own me. But you don't, no one does. Even that lecher Jiraya can't possibly think of ordering me around without risking his own safety," he said, staring at me the entire time. "So, if Jiraya can't order me around, how do you suppose you can?"

"Um-"

"That's right, it's impossible. You'll never be in charge of me. The closest thing you will ever get to that is being my servant, or my minion, depending on how generous I feel."

"Then are you feeling generous enough to not leave me to die down here?" I asked tentatively. Gamabunta only laughed in response almost launching me clean off his face.

"And how do you expect me to do that?" he said through is amusement.

"I don't know, jump?" I climbed back to my feet once his laughter died down enough to get a firm footing.

"Oh yes, that will work quite well," Gamabunta said, sarcasm dripping off his words. "You can hardly stay put wile I laugh. If I jumped, you'd be lost for sure."

"No I wouldn't!"

"You'll tumble off before I even reach ground level."

"I'm not that weak!" I plopping myself down angrily. I sat there with my arms and legs crossed, glowering at him.

"I highly doubt that."

"Fine!" I shouted. "Then I'm not moving!"

"What?" the toad asked.

"You heard me! I'm not moving from here until you recognize that I summoned you! And you stop calling me a weakling!"

"You'd have to be on my back for the rest of the day in order to convince me of that."

"Then I will!"

Gamabunta narrowed his eyes at me, finally realizing that I wasn't backing down from this challenge.

"You'll be in the dirt in a matter of minutes," he said after a moment. I smirked in response.

"Now _I _highly doubt _that_," I said with a smirk. I could feel the vibrations his amphibian growl throughout my entire body.

"If that's what you want, I'll ablige. But I'm not letting you off easy," the chief toad replied.

Before I could do anything with that information, he lowered himself, readying his muscles. This was the only warning I got before he leaped high into the air. I yelled as the force knocked me flat on my back, pinning me to his nose. It wasn't until we were high into the air, so far above the ground that my jutsu couldn't see it, that his assent slowed until we were suspended in air. Well, until he started falling.

The change in direction almost sent me off in a different direction, it, at the very least, sent me tumbling from his nose down towards his back. It was all I could do to grab the collar of his kimono before I was lost completely.

Gamabunta landed with such force that I heard could hear trees shatter for probably a half mile around us. The only reason I didn't break bones or something was when I slammed into his back was because he was kinda squishy.

"I did it!" I screamed happily as I tried to right my vision.

"I'm not done yet, Gaki. This is only the start," he said with a smile in his voice. He leaped into the air once again before I had a chance to even question my own decision  
\- - - -

Jiraya watched the toad jump around franticly from a safe distance, very curious as to what had actually went on in that canyon. He had stayed close, his Lion Mane Jutsu at the ready if he needed to grab him. There was no way in hell he was going to let his student die in a training exercise. Not to mention that, if he did, he was sure Minato would come back and haunt him.

But, as it would turn out, Jiraya had no need for such measures. Naruto seemed to have worked something out with his tenant because the next thing the toad sage knew there was a flash of Kyubi chakra and Gamabunta appeared.

It was about then that Jiraya decided that it would be best to retreat to a safe distance and watch this curious event unfold.

"What went on down there?" Jiraya muttered to himself. He could just faintly hear Naruto yelling over the trees Gamabunta was knocking down. He was just wondering how long they were going to continue this when the toad jumped high into the air again.

"JUST LET GO YOU LITTLE SNOT!" Jiraya heard the toad shout before falling back to the ground with a thud

"NEVER!" Naruto replied soon after.

"I'm going to assume it'll be a while," Jiraya said as he turned away from the jumping toad. "I better alert Sensei to the repairs. Tenzo's going to have his work cut out for him."

With that Jiraya shunshined away, leaving Naruto and Gamabunta to whatever business they had going on.

! ! ! !8 HOURS LATER! ! ! !

Jiraya came back around four o'clock to check on their progress. He hadn't heard any crashing as of late so he figured it was at least safe enough to peak. What he came back to was puzzling to say the least. Gamabunta was sitting in the middle of the small river, his large head resting on one hand while his eyes slowly drifted shut. Naruto was still on his back, looking more ruffled then ever as he snored loudly.

"So, are you done jumping around like a moron?" Jiraya asked as he stepped out from one of the abused trees.

"Yes," The toad said, his eyes now completely shut. "I'm getting too old for this sort of thing."

"What was going on anyways?"

"I was testing him, somehow it turned into a challenge to see if he could stay on my back till the sun disappeared."

Jiraya gave the toad a strange look before glancing at the sun still firmly up in the sky.

"So, why'd you stop?"

"We're currently at a stalemate," Gamabunta replied, gesturing to the small human on his back with his free hand. "He lost consciousness fifteen minutes ago, yet somehow that stubborn little brat still won't let go of my kimono. I think his grips stronger in sleep than it was when he was awake."

"Well, that's an interesting turn of events," Jiraya said with a smirk.

"Tell me about it," the toad muttered. "I guess I'm stuck here until he either lets go or falls off."

"I can remove him if you want."

"Be my guest," he answered as Jiraya jumped onto his back to examine his student. "Though if anyone asks the sun was clearly down by the time he passed out."

"Why's that?" Jiraya said with a chuckle. Naruto seemed alright, just some exhaustion from his early morning training and his meeting with Gamabunta.

"Gives me an excuse to work with him like I'm supposed to. That kid's going to need all the help he can get."

"Because of his disability?" Jiraya began peeling the boy's fingers away in order to free the chief toad.

"Because he has a habit of getting himself into trouble that could have been avoided," Gamabunta said as the last finger came free. Jiraya put Naruto over his shoulder and jumped to the ground. "I'm guessing you know about his eyes then."

"I'm his sensei, of course I do."

"Then the next time you have him sign something, make sure the scroll is right side up," he said as he got to his feet. "Seeing the kid's signature upside-down was a pretty good indication that he was either blind or a complete moron."

"I thought you'd like a small warning to what you were dealing with."

"Are you sure it wasn't just to troll your student?"

"…That too." Jiraya gave the toad a sly smile. "I best get this kid home. Let him sleep this off."

"Sleep sounds good at the moment. I think I'll take a nap." Gamabunta yawned as he spoke. There was a big poof of smoke as he went back to the summoning world without so much as a goodbye. Jiraya just shook his head before he shinshuned away himself.

! ! ! !NEXT DAY! ! ! !

When I finally woke up my head was killing me. It felt like someone used my skull to ring a very large gong. Repeatedly. The last thing I remembered was clinging to Gamabunta's collar trying not to fall off. I guess I must have passed out at some point.

For a moment I thought they had dropped me off at the hospital but the familiar smell of old wood and ramen set me at ease. There wasn't a trace of antiseptic in the air, only that of water and something my ache head couldn't identify. I groaned as I sat up, my body competing with my head for the award in "most painful body part of the year."

"_Ow," _I thought to the Kyubi. _"Remind me not to do that again."_

"**Kit," **he answered in little more than a whisper.** "Chakra Echoes. Now."**

"_Ok?" _I answered, a little worried.

I focused my chakra before sending it out, feeling very confused on what came back. I tensed, my limbs preparing to dart at the sight of the figure sitting cross-legged at the end of my bed. It was about then that I figured out what that other smell was that I couldn't identify.

"Hello Foxy!" Fuu said enthusiastically a moment before I dived out my own window. She soon followed, starting yet another panic filled chase through the village.


	23. Chapter 23

I'm sooooo sorry this is late! I swear I've been working on this as much as possible but I just started school again so that plus my job, plus my homework is making it difficult to find time to do any writing. Anyways, this is the last chapter before the start of the third exam. It's also extra long to make up for the fact that it's wicked late. I already have most of the next chapter written so I'll try to have it posted on Monday to try to catch up with where I'm supposed to be right now. Also, if this chapter seems a little rough, I'm sorry. I'll try to find some time to edit during the next month. Since I've finally caught up with what I had written before I now have two or three chapters already done so not only will posting be a little more consistent but I should also have time to do some editing. Hopefully.

Oh and I almost forgot, the prank thought up in this was something Fox's Ace suggested. I altered it a bit but it was still their idea. So thanks for the help :)

Anyways, thanks for the reviews. I'll try to send some responses a bit later.

Hope you enjoy,

Trouble 1  
~~~~~~~~

! ! ! ! 1 WEEK LATER ! ! ! !

"**Prank," **the kyubi stated as I grabbed my remaining jacket off the back of the chair.

It was about ten in the morning and I had decided to make the most out of the day off my sensei gave me. Of course this meant sleeping in and having Ichiraku's for breakfast. Maybe lunch as well. But the fox had other plans regarding my free time.

"I'm not even out the door yet," I said. I slipped my arms into the sleeves and zipped up my coat. "Can't you wait until I at least had breakfast?"

"**I could, but since you haven't even thought on what you're going to do I'm not."**

"I have finals tomorrow! Just leave me alone already." I shoved my hands into my pockets as I left my apartment and started my way towards the ramen stand.

"**For the millionth time, that's not how it works," **the Kyubi said with a sigh.

"_Fine, I'll come up with something over breakfast. Happy?" _I said, switching to non-verbal communication as I entered the public streets.

"**Appeased. Also, will you expand your Chakra Echoes already? We've had too many close calls with those women and I doubt you want to end up completely coatless. Aren't you running low on shirts as well?"**

"_I'm down to two. One of which isn't even a tee-shirt," _I answered, stopping at the bottom of the stairs in order to focus my chakra towards the other three echo points.

I didn't move for a moment as I began to see things from every side. It was hard to get used to but I was getting better at it. At least now I can figure out which way I'm facing which hopefully eliminates any possibility of a dock incident repeat. Once I was mentally situated, I started walking again, humming happily as I made my way towards the ramen. No day starting with ramen can ever be bad, no matter what happens.

The ramen stand was just coming into sight when the world decided it was necessary to prove me wrong. Before I even knew what was going on, I was suddenly assaulted from above, an unknown force pinning me to the sidewalk.

"You know, you're getting harder and harder to sneak up on, Fishcake," an all too familiar voice said from my back. "I like it."

"**I think your next training session should be dedicated to an echo point on top your head."**

"_I'll keep that in mind,_"I grumbled silently.

"Morning Fu," I muttered into the dirt.

I heard her huff in disappointment. It wouldn't take a genius to figure out that she was frowning at me.

"What kind of reaction was that?" she pouted. "Where's the look of surprise? The panic to get way? The running? Particularly the running. You're not trying to boycott again are you?"

"No, I'm hungry. I haven't had breakfast yet," I answered, propping my head up on my hands so I wasn't eating the dirt anymore. "So, why don't you just take my tee-shirt and leave me alone for a while. You can even leave me alone for the whole day if you want. My sensei gave me the day off and I intend to enjoy it."

"Really? I got the day off too!" My face went pail as I heard the grin appear back in her voice.

"Please be joking," I muttered.

"That's awesome! Oh, I just got the best idea!" she said, ignoring me.

"Please don't be what I think it is. Please don't be what I think it is," I chanted to myself.

"We can spend the whole day together!"

"No."

"And first we'll have breakfast."

"Please no."

"And then we can spend the rest of the day walking around town…"

"No. No. No. No. No. No. No."

"Just, the two of us."

"No!" I shouted, jumping to my feet while simultaneously knocking Fu to the ground.

"**Screw this!" **The Kyubi screamed, **"Get the hell out of here!" **

I was just about to follow his advice when two vice like hands grabbed my arm, keeping me from taking even another step.

"Too late, my minds already made up!" She said, changing her grasp so it looked more like we had linked arms, the grip of the hold no different than before. "So, where do you go for breakfast around this place, I'm starving!"

"Y-you don't want to go where I'm going," I said desperately. "I was just going for some ramen. It's not even breakfast food so you should just find somewhere else to eat."

"I've never had ramen for breakfast, but it sounds like fun. Let's go!" She began dragging me at a dead run down the sidewalk, making it very difficult for me to keep up.

"But-" I tried to say, only to be cut off when she stopped short, almost separating my arm from the rest of my body.

"Um, which way is it again?"

Unsure of that myself now, I let the extra echo points drop away, leaving only the one on my forehead still active. I glanced around only to find that she was going in the exact opposite direction.

I thought about telling her she was going the right way, if only to keep my favorite shop out of her knowledge, but I was starving. Seriously, my stomach was trying to eat itself while making all the appropriate noises to indicate such. That and I haven't had ramen in a week, I needed my fix.

"**Just take her there," **the kyubi said after a moment. **"At least that way you'll have a chance to escape."**

"_I suppose that's better than wandering around until she gets bored."_

"It's the other way," I told her, only for her to spin us around and dart off in the right direction.

It only took us about five minutes of Fu dragging me down the sidewalk to get to the ramen stand. It would have only taken two if she hadn't passed it. Twice.

"Are you sure this is the place?" she asked as she examined the ramen stall. "It's kinda small."

"Yes I'm sure," I said before finally being able to pull my arm free from her grasp. "Welcome to Ichiraku's, the best ramen shop ever created."

She continued inspecting the shop as I entered, ducking slightly under the fabric sign before taking a seat at one of the stools.

"Morning!" I said, getting only stares from the owner and his daughter. "What's up?"

"You just passed us twice before entering, we should be asking you that," Ayme stated. "Did you forget where we were?"

"I didn't." I heard Fu's footsteps near the shop as I used my thumb to point in her direction. "She did."

The fabric rustled as she moved it out of the way, stopping for a moment as their gazes turned to her.

"Um, hi," she said almost nervously before taking a seat right next to me.

"Though technically she didn't know where it was to begin with so saying that she forgot it isn't really true."

"You didn't give very good directions," she exclaimed, any nervousness I thought I heard having already left.

"I was giving great directions, you just weren't listening to them."

"What's your name?" Ayaime asked, interrupting us both.

"Oh, I'm Fu, from Taki," she answered.

"Well, it's nice to meet you Fu. I'm Ayaime and that's my father Teuchi." Ayaime nodded her head towards the old man, who waved a spoon in response. "Now, what would you two like to eat?"

"Pork please," I said with a smile.

"How many?" she asked as she took notes.

"I think only six. I want to save some for lunch."

"Money or ramen?"

"Both." Ayaime chuckled before turning to Fu.

"What about you dear?"

"I'll have what he's having," she answered cheerfully.

"Ok, then. The first three bowls will be done in a few minutes," she said, jotting down the last of the notes before taking them to her father.

"There's no way you're going to be able to eat all that," I said once Ayaime left.

"Of course I can!" Fu exclaimed. "I'm a jinchuriki after all. We need to eat a lot in order to keep the seal running."

"Still don't think so."

"Prepare to be proved wrong foxy boy!"

I glared at her as she laughed in her own amusement.

"So," Ayaime began as she returned, leaning on the other side of the counter. "How do you two know each other?"

"I'm his friend," Fu replied, making me gawk at her in surprise.

"No, she's my stalker," I answered, making Fu huff.

"You make it sound like a bad thing," Fu crossed her arms in a pouty fashion. "I mean, it's not like I'm the only one that stalks you. There's that white-eyed chick who's always poking her pointer fingers together. There's that eyepatch sensei sometimes, and the pervert sensei some other times. Then, of course there are those ANBU, oh and the creepy ANBU too. Can't forget them."

She had her hand out, counting each person on a different finger as she mentioned them. I stared at her in surprise. I mean, I knew Hinata was following me sometimes, I noticed it almost as soon as I got those extra echo points working. I'd also occasionally notice one of my sensei's checking up on me. But why would ANBU be following me around? And what exactly made the 'creepy ANBU' any different?

"So see? It's really not that big of a deal. That and it's easier to call me your friend then 'that chick that likes to chase me and steal my clothes.'"

"That's not the point," I muttered to myself since she was ignoring me anyways.

"And that's how it is," she said, turning towards Ayaime. "We're friends."

"Ok?" she answered. She was silent for a moment, then took a breath like she was about to speak, only to get cut off by her father calling the order.

The whole situation was forgotten as Ayaime rushed back and brought the beginning of our meals.

"Arigato Ayaime!" I shouted, grabbing a pair of chopsticks as she set the bowls in front of us.

"You're welcome. Dig in."

And that I did, keeping an eye on Fu the whole time. I watched as she stared at the bowl with a curious air to her. Almost like she had never had ramen before, but I knew that was impossible. I mean, how can someone ever live without at least trying ramen?

Anyways, after a moment or two she grabbed a set of chopsticks and finally took a bite. The sound that followed could only be described as an excited yell that almost knocked me off my stool in surprise.

"This stuff's amazing!" Fu shouted. A second later she was off her stool, her hands slammed onto the table, and her face only inches from Ayaime's. "Tell me your secret."

"Um…" Ayaime made a nervous sound as she tried to come up with an answer.

"You're making her nervous Fu," I said with a sigh, the other jincuriki turning to face me.

"So? I make you nervous."

"Yes, but I can't throw you out of the ramen stand because of it."

"Oh. Good point." Fu took her seat again, returning to her food. "Sorry Ichiraku-san."

"That's alright, and you can call me Ayaime."

"Ok."

After that there was silence at the booth, Fu and I were too focused on our food to talk to each other while Ayaime and Teuchi watched us, no doubt curious about Fu.

I smiled into my food as I stole a glance at my breakfast companion. She looked happy, as far as I could tell. She seemed to genuinely like the ramen to the point where she was swaying in her chair as she ate. This was a reaction to Ichiraku's that I've never seen before, and I've introduced a lot of people to this place. So, if she likes it here almost as much as I do, wouldn't that mean she isn't as bad as I first thought?

"**I can't believe what I'm hearing," **the Kyubi muttered, almost making me drop my chopsticks. **"You're questioning this now?"**

"_But she likes the ramen."_

"**Naruto, this food isn't a character test. A nice person can hate the taste of ramen just as much as a bad person can like it."**

"_Well, I've never met a good person that has ever hated Ichiraku's ramen."_

"**You know what, I'm not even going to argue. I have better things to be doing, like those pranks."**

"_Are you kidding? I have more important things on my mind."_

"**Then ditch her already. She's more than distracted enough to get away."**

"_I'm not leaving till I'm done with my ramen."_

"**Prank. Prank. Prank. Prank."**

"_Cut it out."_

"**Prank. Prank. Prank. Prank."**

"Shut up," I said. Not realizing that it had been out loud until Fu turned her attention towards me with a small, confused hum.

"I didn' say anyfin," she said, her voice muffled by the ramen in her mouth.

"Sorry, not you. Fox won't shut up," I answered quietly, not wanting Ayaime to hear me. "He wants me to prank people."

"Why?" she mumbled before finally swallowing her food. "Is it because he's bored? That's why Nanabi has me prank."

"She does that too?"

"Yup, all the time. She just had me douse my old sensei's shampoo with pink hair die before coming here."

"That's awesome," I said with a grin.

"Of course it is. Won't be as much when I get back though. I'm sure he's going to be furious."

"That's half the fun."

"What does he want you to do?" she asked, placing her chopsticks to the side.

"He doesn't really care. I made a deal with him a couple weeks ago and now I have to do some sort of awesome prank every week."

"A deal? Seriously?" Fu said, sounding unbelieving. "That wasn't very smart."

"I know," I answered, resting my head in the palm of my hand. "But when it's either prank others every week or get mentally tormented for the rest of my life, well, you make up your mind pretty quickly."

"Sounds about right." Fu mimicked me, resting her head almost vertically on her fist as she stared at me. I tried to ignore her, but it was kinda difficult when that was the only thing she did for three minutes straight.

"Sooo…" she stared. I lifted my head, turning to look at her. "What type of prank are we gonna do?"

"We?" I asked in confusion but was ignored again.

"It has to be something good," she continued, tapping her fingers on the counter in thought. "And if I'm involved it has to be freaking awesome."

"I don't get-" was all I was about to say before she shot straight up, her hands slamming into the table yet again, almost sending our food flying.

"That's it!" she shouted as she leaped from her stool. "Let's go!"

"What?" I asked. Fu only grabbed my hand and dragged me out of the chair. We were half way down the street before I realized what was going on. "Wait! No! My ramen!"

! ! ! !FIVE HOURS LATER! ! ! !

It was around two o'clock that we finally finished Fu's epic prank. Now she was forcibly walking me around town as we waited for someone to notice. At the moment, more people noticed the fact that the girl I was walking arm-in-arm with was wearing my jacket then anything we've done today.

"So, how long do you think it will take them to figure it out?" She asked as she almost skipped by my side.

"It shouldn't be long. After all Kaka-sensei is always reading those books so I'm sure he'll find out soon enough," I answered, testing her grip as I spoke. I wasn't going anywhere.

"I can't wait!" Fu exclaimed with a little hop. "Just imagining the cries of desperation as all those perverts find horticulture books in the covers of their favorite porn books!"

"Personally, I think the gardeners checking out books at the library will be more surprised."

"True," she said, her voice smiling. Silence fell between us as she continued leading me through town, seemingly without a purpose.

"Um, since we're done, can I go home now?" I asked after a few minutes. She gave me a glance before turning forwards again.

"No," was her only answer.

"But why?"

"Because I haven't had a chance to explore the town yet. I've been too busy training, oh and chasing you of course."

"Then walk around on your own," I said with a pout. "I have things I have to do before tomorrow; like preparing my weapons, checking my kunai's, and paying for that ramen we walked out on earlier."

"Oh yeah, forgot about that," she said with a guilty chuckle.

"So can I go now?"

"No."

"Why?"

"Because I want to walk around town with you," she answered, sounding agitated.

"But why?!" I exclaimed, making her stop in her tracks.

"Because it's not fair!"

Fu threw her arms to her sides in a pouty manor. In doing so she released me, but I was so surprised that I didn't run. I stayed put, wanting to hear what she had to say, all the while ignoring the desperate yells from the Kyuubi telling me to 'run for my life.'

"It's not fair that the Kyubi and Nanabi have known each other for years yet I only met you last month. It's not fair that I'm being shipped back home immediately after the exams when everyone else gets a few days to recover. And it's definitely not fair that the rest of your friends get to see you on a daily basis while I don't even know the next time I'll be in the same _village_ as you. It's just not fair!"

I stared at her in silence as she recovered from her outburst. Even the Kyubi was quiet as we waited for her to continue.

"I just wanted to spend a day with you so we can get to know each other more," she whispered, her head aimed at the ground. "Is that too much to ask?"

I stood there for a moment, trying to decide what to do. Every instinct inside me was telling me to run for it, to get away before she realized I was even gone, but that didn't seem right. Leaving her alone like that.

"**Kit? Don't do it. Don't you dare do it," **The kyubi warned. **"Just get the hell out of there like I told you. It's a trap. A trap I tell you!"**

I sighed, tuning out the fox as I held my arm out to her.

"Where do you want to go?" I asked. Fu looked up at me for a moment before latching onto my arm with such excitement that I almost fell to the ground.

"Doesn't matter," she exclaimed happily. "Just make sure it's awesome!"


	24. Chapter 24

Hey everyone, here's the new chapter. Thanks for the reviews, per usual. I always love feed back, whether it's good, bad, or neutral, I don't care as long as it's constructive.

Anyways, I know I've been changing my mind a lot lately as far as my due dates on the sight, but that's mostly because I want to give you guys good chapters in a good time but with so little time I have that's not entirely possible. So I think I'm just going to post chapters as I have them ready. I'll try to keep it to about two or three weeks but other than that I don't know when the chapters will be out. I'm sorry about that and really wish I could keep a stable time table but that's basically impossible at the moment.

As for Reviews, I'm going to respond right now, as in as soon as I post this. If I don't finish by the time I have to leave it will get there by tomorrow evening.

To Sn0wk1tty: Thanks for all the reviews. I'm glad to see it when people are enjoying this fic as much as I enjoy writing it.

To Story Artist: It's not much of a spoiler since I'm posting it now, so no, Fu doesn't find out about Naruto being blind in this chapter. And not the next one either. But that's all I have to say on the matter. :)

So hope you enjoy,

Trouble 1  
~~~~~~~~

! ! ! !THE NEXT DAY! ! ! !

I woke up the next morning a little confused. The entire day yesterday had been nothing but terror and uncertainty. By the time the sun went down, I still had no idea what was going on, or why.

The rest of the day itself hadn't been too bad. She behaved herself for most of our time out. We mostly just walked around town and chatted about different things, most of which was boasting about pranks and complaining about our byjuu. I'll admit, it was kinda nice talking with someone that was going through the same thing I was.

Anyways, everything was pretty peaceful until our prank was discovered. Then we spent the next several hours running from perverts and gardeners alike.

It was quite easy to ditch them once we were found out. All we had to do was run through the bookstore then Ino's flower shop and we ended up losing quite a few of them do to distractions. The rest we lost by dodging into ally ways and using the old fashion hedgeing technique.

Though I will say this, by the time it was all said and done, I'm pretty sure there were a few herbalists added to Jiraya's fan club, judging by the fact that several of those books weren't returned to the library immediately. I also noticed a few of the lechers sneaking plants back to their apartments, so I guess everything worked out well in that regard.

The sun was just starting to set when we had finally gotten rid of the last of them. We somehow ended up on top the Hokage Monument, looking down at the village below.

"Alright, now _this_ is awesome," she said, staring at the sight with awe at whatever colors the sunset was portraying at that point. Unfortunately I couldn't exactly join in her amazement since the only thing my chakra echoes would pick up were a few of the taller rooftops. "Arigato!"

"You're welcome?" I answered, unwilling to admit that we had ended up here at this time purely by accident.

I stood there awkwardly, keeping my arms crossed as I tried to keep warm. I could feel the drop in temperature as the sun was falling, which would have been fine if I still had my coat. I used one of my side Echo Points to glance at Fu who had said jacket zipped up to her nose while she held the collar in place with both of her hands. She clearly enjoyed wearing it.

"So, it's getting late," I said, turning off my spare Echo Point so I was just looking at my shifting feet. "And with the sun going down it's technically the end of the day."

"Yeah, it is."

"That means I can go home right?" I asked tentatively. She was silent for a moment, not even moving from her spot for a while. I was just beginning to think she wasn't going to answer at all when she let out a small sigh.

"I suppose," she answers, not sounding overly happy about it.

"Ok. Guess I'll see you tomorrow then." I had just taken a few steps away when she called back to me.

"Hey Naruto," she said. I stopped as I glanced over my shoulder to see her facing me now. Within the next few seconds she steps forward and gives me an unexpected peck on the cheek. "Good night."

I stood there in awe as I tried to figure out what was going on. I was still no closer to an answer when she tackled me, stole my shirt, and darted away while waving it like a victory flag.

Even as I laid there the next morning, I still hadn't figure out what was going on. It was just so confusing! Why would she-

Before I could continue that train of thought, my watched buzzed, alerting me to the turn of the hour. I ran my fingers over the face of the watch to feel that it was nine o'clock. I sat up quickly, trying to dart out of my bed in the same motion only to get tangled in my sheets and fall to the floor.

I felt the watch again to make sure I was right. It now said 9:01. I was supposed to be there at 8:30. It was going to take me twenty minutes to just get there. And usually more than ten minutes to get ready to leave.

"Damn it!" I shouted as struggled to get untangled from the sheets. After they finally released me, I darted over to my clothes and tried to get dressed while I turned on my Chakra Echoes. Unfortunately it wasn't till I got going that I noticed I was trying to put my pants on backwards and use my boxers as a shirt.

Once I got situated wearing my regular pants plus the long sleeve black shirt that was the only one I had left, I checked my watch again. It read 9:10.

I didn't even bother to swear as I ran through the rest of my apartment, stopping only to grab a granola bar from the kitchen before darting out the door.

"I'm late! I'm late! I'm late!" I chanted around my breakfast as I darted across the rooftops. That's when a thought hit me. "Wait, why do I care? They'll just blame Kakashi anyways."

With a shrug I continued, not quite so panniced as before, deciding I better come up with a pretty good excuse to make up for it.

It took another fifteen minutes to reach the entrance. I could see everyone standing in the arena already, some of which were looking at their wrists, no their watches. I immediately jumped to the ground and darted through the archway to the arena, only for my foot to catch on a rock, sending me tumbling into the stadium.

"YOU'RE LATE!" I heard Sakura shout from the bleachers as I climbed back to my feet.

"Well, you see, Konohamaru was upset about not playing ninja with him and set a herd of cattle at me?" I said.

"And where are these cows now?" our proctor asked. He wasn't the same coughing one from the prelims, he was wearing his hitai-ate backwards and was chewing on a senbon.

"Hamburger," I nodded confidently. Before he could comment, a pair of figures appeared shinshuning into the arena.

"Yo!" the taller said.

"Hi sensei!" I said over Sakura's second exclamation.

"Sorry we're late Genma. Sasuke took too long changing into his uni-tard," he said to the proctor, blatantly ignored Sasuke's attempts to correct him as he spoke.

"Congratulations on corrupting your students," Genma said. "Naruto just arrived as well."

"His excuse?"

"Less believable than yours."

"Nice, I must hear it. But later." There was the sound of footsteps as he walked over to me. "First, how many fingers?"

"Seriously sensei? You're checking if I can count?" I exclaimed as I pretended to scowl. It wasn't like I didn't know this was coming or anything. "No one else got asked that."

"I questioned Sasuke before coming here. Now, how many fingers?" He held a hand up with a couple fingers up.

"Fine. Three, five, two, six, eight, fifteen…twenty-four—You're hedging your hand!"

"Good catch. You pass!" I glared at him as he no doubt grinned back. "Good luck."

"Thanks sensei!"

"Moving on," Genma said before launching into an opening speech. I stepped into the end of the line as he spoke, only to have to stiffen a groan of despair. My luck couldn't have been any worse, I was sure of it.

"Hey Foxy," Fu whispered, making me I shudder. "Like my coat?"

I glanced at her to see a strange coat on over her bag. It had no sleeves or collar, but other than that it looked kind of like mine. Exactly like mine. In fact it even _smelled _like mine. There was no mistaking the smell of ramen and fox.

"Is that… mine?"

"Yep."

"What… happened to it?"

"I improved it."

"You did that to all of them, didn't you?"

"Yep," she said as she took off the jacket and tossed it at me. I struggled to catch it, making Genma stall in his speech.

"Sorry!" I gave a nervous laugh making him shake his head before. I slipped the coat on quietly, zipping it as far as I could, which for some reason it was only to about mid-chest.

"I'll drop the rest off before I leave," she whispered before analyzing my new wardrobe. "Yes, that's better. You should wear a shirt like that more often. It looks very good with the coat."

"I don't have another shirt like this."

"Then get more."

"Why should I?"

"Because I'm keeping the shirts," she sounded almost evil as I sent a glair her way. "I'm thinking about making a quilt. Or a really large flag."

"Will all combatants leave the arena except Uzumaki Naruto and Huuga Neji," Genma announced.

"Wait, I'm first?!"

"Yes, you are. Kakashi should have told you a month ago."

"Sorry about that," the cyclops could be heard saying from the stands. "I must have slipped my mind."

"How could you forget something like this!"

"You're afraid to fight me, aren't you?" Neji's question had no emotion to be found in it. "Fate has already dictated your loss, after all."

"Shut up you!" I shouted, turning towards him. "That has nothing to do with it.

"Are you finished? I need to start this match," Genma stated. I opened my mouth several times to say something but couldn't think of anything.

"Fine, whatever. I really shouldn't be surprised anymore." I stepped into the center of the arena, across from Neji.

"Are the combatants ready?" Neji nodded as I shouted 'hell yeah!' "Fight!"

"You have no chance of winning, Fate is on my side."

"And how much of an advantage can you get from a fire extinguisher?" I asked, obviously infuriating the long haired boy.

"A fire extinguisher?"

"Oh come on! You can't tell me you've never heard of the Fire Extinguisher of Fate!"

"No," he stated as I grumbled "Regardless, why would I need a fire extinguisher to defeat you? My strength far surpasses yours."

"Tell that to Kiba, his little speech was almost the same, well, without the fire extinguisher part."

"I am more powerful than Kiba."

"Me too," I said happily. "Are we going to fight or just throw words back and forth till someone folds?"

His eyes narrowed before lunging forward, using his family tijutsu to obviously try and take me out immediately. I dodged the attack while simultaneously creating several clones to use as shields when he came at me again. Of course, it didn't take long for him to dispel them. As the clones disappeared, I got the distinct impression of foreign chakra being forced into my system, making my arm numb for a moment before it faded away.

I was so surprised by this that I barely had time to dodge a palm aimed straight at my chest. That was about when I remembered that something similar happened when I fought Kiba that I had completely forgotten about, therefore never asked about.

I dodged another hit before darting across the arena to get some distance between him and I if only to get a second to think.

"You're scared of me. I can tell. You haven't even dared to attack me."

"Think what you like, Neji. But I will beat you."

"Weren't you listening? You won't win!"

"Sorry, I've had a problem with my ears as of late," I said, using a finger to clean my ear. "I've been having trouble hearing overconfident assholes."

Before he had a chance to comment back, I created several more clones that charged at him. Those few seconds had been all I needed to come up with a plan, if only a little one. I was hoping to find some sort of flaw in his technique, something that only being hit multiple times by said skill could find. But as each of my clones disappeared, I found nothing. His form was perfect, there was no hesitation in any of his throws, I couldn't find a single opening. He really did earn the title of prodigy.

Before my all my clones disappeared, I joined the fray, I maneuvered myself behind him to take advantage of what should have been a blind spot. It was a second later that I remembered what byakugan was when he not only dodged it, but grabbed ahold of my outstretched arm and threw me into my own clones, dispelling all of them.

"This is pointless! You're fate is sealed. I can see all!"

"Hey Neji, guess what?" I climbed to my feet and whipped the trickle of blood off my chin. "I know."


	25. Chapter 25

First, let me say that I'm super sorry about leaving you all hanging like that. Trust me when I say that I had no intention of doing so but school and work ended up being too much on me to do any sort of recreational writing, what so ever. For the last few months, if I wasn't at work I was in class or doing homework. I had no down time. I'm going to try to go back to the every Monday scheduled, or if I can't work that it will be the every other Monday. But either way I've got a plan and I shouldn't be leaving you guys hanging for three or four months like that again.

Anyways, thank you for your patience, and without further to do, here's the new chapter.

Hope you enjoy,

Trouble 1  
~~~~~~~~

Neji looked angry as I focused on my other Echo Points, opening them up in order to level the playing field. I was still adjusting to my new vision when he charged at me, attacking in a flurry of movement. It was all I could to do to dodge them all let alone keep track of him. The later I was apparently doing a worse job at than I thought I was since he somehow ended up behind me, poised to strike my spine.

I dove to the side dodging the strike by mere millimeters. I rolled once across the ground before stopping in a defensive kneeling position. I kept focused on Neji as paused in his attack in order to just stare at me.

"You should not have seen that coming," he stated, sounding confused. "You were facing the other way. How did you evade it?"

"Byakugan isn't the only way to see everything." I smirked as I continued talking. "At least, not any more.

"Impossible!" Neji hissed as he charged one again. I climbed to my feet and dodged again, just in time.

"Not exactly, if you know how to do it. Guess the Byakugan isn't as special as you lead on."

In his fury, he attacked again, finally giving me a small opening. With a smirk I side stepped him before kicking him hard enough to send him flying across the arena, straight into a circle of clones.

Half of the clones attacked directly while the others pulled out kunais, aiming them at my opponent. I was a brilliant plan, after all, no matter how much you can see, it doesn't help very much if there's too much going on for you to dodge.

"KATIN!" Neji shouted, surprising me when a spinning wall of chakra deflected my weapons and hid him from view.

Before I could react the wall disappeared and he leaped forward, attacking me once again. Only this time his hits were too rapid for me to count, let alone avoid. But apparently he was able to keep track because he was constantly shouting the numbers during his pauses. I think he called its name too but I missed it. I ended up flying across the arena and slamming into the back wall with a crack.

"Do you finally see your place?" My jutsu was acting up as he walked towards me, his steps seeming to stutter like a movie that was missing several frames. "Neither you nor your pathetic jutsu can hold a candle to me. You are inferior!"

As soon as my vision stabilized, I began to slowly climb to my feet. Most of my chakra systems were unusable. In fact I couldn't use any of it except in small amounts, which was all I need to keep my 'eyes' working.

"What…the hell is…your problem?" I demanded, making him stop as I swayed in place.

"How are you still standing?" I started getting perturbed that he was ignoring my question, that and I was getting underestimated again.

"I'm tough. But seriously. Is that stick up…your ass too tight, or what?"

"Give up, you will lose. Fate has dictated it."

"Yes, yes, you keep saying that." I brushed off his statement, trying to gain time so the Kyubi could work on getting me some semblance of chakra control back before continuing the fight. I figured if I got him started on a monologue, that would do just fine. "But why? The rest of your clan…isn't so obsessed with 'fate'. Why you?"

"My fate was sealed by my supposed clan!" He yanked his headband off his head dramatically, obviously trying to show me something. I heard some mumbling from behind me, something about a strange seal on his forehead, which was all I needed to hear.

"Clever pun."

"Don't you dare belittle me!"

"Don't worry, I just want to know when you were actually going to answer my question."

"This seal IS my fate! It is the fate of every branch member in the Huuga clan." I hid a smirk as he began what was bound to be one of those really long monologues Jiraya said they were famous for. "This seal is placed on every branch member under the guise that it protects our dojutsu from being stolen when it's actually used to control us! It's used to keep the branch family in line!

"Just because my father was the second twin, he was placed in the branch family making it so I was born into it. It is because of this that my father was forced to die in his brother's place! It is—"

"You shouldn't blame fate, or even a single seal for everything wrong in your life," I interrupted, his self-centered monologue already getting to me. "If I believed what you did, I wouldn't be who I am today."

"You know nothing of my pain!" Neji yelled.

I narrowed my eyes at him, deciding enough was enough. I was going to end this fight now, whether my chakra control was back or not. I shot forward angrily, throwing punches and kicks until one caught Neji, knocking him to the ground.

"I don't need to. Your pain is nothing compared to some people out there. You might not have your father but you still have a family. A family you hate but a family none the less. Hinata cares about you like you're her brother and what do you do? You almost kill her over something she didn't even do!"

"She's too weak." He spitting a bit of blood before climbing to his feet. "Because of her I lost my father. It _was _her fault!"

"That was years ago Neji! My sensei told me about it. What was she, three? She was a toddler, how could she be expected to fight back?!"

It was obviously that he wasn't listening when he charged at me once again, only this time I was ready for that sixty-four hit thing he was going to do.

As soon as the first undodgeable strike was about to hit I substitute myself out with a spare clone. Lucky for me he had no way of stopping the attack once he started it, so even though he knew the real me was gone, he couldn't do a damn thing about it. But I was nice and waited for him to finish his attack before starting mine.

Alright, it wasn't to be nice persay, I was more rubbing the fact that he wouldn't be able to have done anything if I had and judging by the frown on his face he knew it. As soon as he threw his last hit, I leaped forward and punched him right in the face, knocking him into the wall three yards behind him, and then tumbling to the ground.

When he tried to get up again, I was already there to knock him back down. After that he didn't try to get up again, the only way I knew he was still conscious was from his pained breathing.

I dropped to my knee next to him, I leaning close to whispered in his ear, not wanting the whole audience to hear me.

"And just so you know you're not the only one who's life changed from a seal," I said quietly, lifting my shirt to show my own. "This was placed on me the day I was born. I'll leave what it's for to your imagination. I'll only say that my life could have been a lot better without it, but I could have taken it a lot worse. I could have turned out like you."

After I finished that, his breathing slowed, most likely because he was finally knocked out. The proctor came over and checked his pulse just to make sure. He nodded, straitening to his feet.

"Winner! Uzumaki Naruto!" Genma exclaimed.

There was a stunned silence before Fu shouted "HELL YEAH!" which started a whole ton of cheering from the audience. More than I thought I would ever get in Konoha. I climbed to my feet, stumbling a bit as I smiled.

"You good?" Kakashi asked, appearing next to me as medics came to take Neji away.

"Yep, I'm great." I dusted myself off as I headed out of the arena. "Well, other than a couple of fractured ribs and a messed up chakra system. But the fox is working on that as we speak."

"Will he be done by the next match?"

"Depends on how lazy he feels," I answered. Kakashi turned to look at me, probably with some sort of worried expression on his face. "Stop being such a worrier. I can handle myself now. After all, with my healing abilities, I should be the last one you should be concerned about. I'll be as good as new in time for my next match while everyone else will be suffering from exhaustion. And I could seriously win this whole competition because of it."

"That is quite possible, as long as you're not put up against the Taki girl," Kakashi said, making me freeze in the process. "Speaking of which, did she do that to all of them?"

Kakashi motioned towards my jacket.

"Every single one," I answered as I pulled at the jacket glumly.

"That was AWESOME!" I heard a girl shout as felt a pair of arms flung themselves across my shoulders. It was all I could do keep from falling to the ground. "You totally showed that stuck up ass what's what!"

"Thanks for the complement," I said flatly. "Happy you enjoyed my fight to the death."

"Oh don't be so dramatic." I felt her let go, allowing me to straighten myself up once again.

"Was that necessary?"

"Nope, but it was fun." She latched onto my arm as the Kyubi and I silently cried in self-pity.

"Well, I'll just let you two love birds head up yourselves. I'm supposed to be in a different box."

"Wait! You're leaving me alone with her!"

"You two were alone all day yesterday," Kakashi pointed out.

I gawked at him, trying to come up with a response, but before I could, he shinshued away with only a quick "Ja ne."

"Asshat."

"Well, come on foxy, the next match is about to start and I want to see it!"

! ! ! !THAT SAME TIME! ! ! !

Orochimaru sat in the kage box, looking quite confused, or he would have if he wasn't wearing the Kazekage's robes and veil. The source of his confusion was one, blond kitsune child. Kabuto had told him that he, in no uncertain terms, had disabled the boy and there was no way he could continue to mess with his plans. But after seeing him destroy the Huuga, he was seriously starting to doubt this.

Orochimaru made a hand motion a second before one of the Suna ANBU dropped down next to him. He leaned closer so that his old sensei wouldn't hear him.

"I thought you said you took care of the boy," he whispered tensely as he watched the boy in question chat with his comrades.

"I did sir," Kabuto replied, equally startled.

"Then why does he fight as if he can still see?"

"I heard that he has been training with your old teammate, Jiraya. It's possible they found a jutsu to counteract the lack of sight."

"I have never heard of such a thing."

"They could have created it."

"A new jutsu?" The disguised sannin's curiosity peaked. "How intriguing. I must see how he does it."

He watched with interest as the boy kept a mint-haired girl from lunging at one of the Kazekage's boys for dropping out before the fight began.

"Find out what you can about it."

"That's a pity," the Third Hokage stated, breaking the other man from his thoughts. "I was looking forward to seeing your eldest son fight."

"You're not missing much," Orochimaru replied as Kabuto stepped back into the shadows.

"That's awfully harsh of you. He is your son." When there was no reply, the Third cleared his throat and continued. "Anyways, I think the next match is going to start."

Just as he finished speaking two girls, one being the mint-haired girl and the other a Yamanaka, pushed one of the next combatants off the balcony and into the arena.

"Yes, it seems to be," he stated, sending one last look at his new interest before turning his eyes reluctantly on to the next, sure to be, drawn out match.


	26. Chapter 26

Again, I'm sorry about the delay. I really am. I know I said that I would have more time now that school's over but apparently that's a lie I was told somewhere down the line. Yes, I have some time but now it's mostly filled with adult responsibilities such as work and grocrie shopping. Then to make matters worse my cat got sick so I've had to take her back and forth to the vet to figure out what's wrong. She's doing alright now, she's on some meds that seem to be helping, but she still has me worried.

Anyways, I was going to post this last Monday but when I watched Naruto for referance, I realized I had Sauske and Gaara's fight scene all wrong. Therefore I had to go back and fix it, hence the even bigger delay. But have no worries, I'm furiously binge watching the series again so I have a better understanding of what happens since I hadn't seen these events for about four years.

So without any further delays, here's the chapter. If the fight scenes are sub-par I'm sorry. I'm not very good at them yet. I'm getting better but I still think they leave much to be desired.

Hope you enjoy,

Trouble 1  
~~~~~~~~

Luckily Shikamaru's match wasn't as long as his previous one, ending in Temari getting trapped in his shadow somehow. Unfortunately the shadow had no physical shape so I couldn't see it. All I really saw was him dodging a bunch of attacks until she froze, yelling about shadow jutsus. Apparently it was pretty impressive since everyone else in the audience was in awe, but then the lazy ass had to ruin it by conceding.

"I don't know whose worse, him or the coward with the cat hat!" Ino exclaimed, as I restrained Fu from trying to kill him as well.

"I'm sure he had a reason," Shino said calmly as Fu was practically foaming at the mouth.

The only thing that saved Shikamaru from an assault was his slow speed coming back, and Fu's match being called.

"About damn time!" she yelled, leaping over the railing while almost taking me with her. As it was I ended up on the ground because I didn't let go fast enough.

"Get up Naruto! You're going to miss it!" Ino exclaimed.

I only grumbled in response as I got to my feet. Shino and Fu were already facing off, waiting only for the proctor to give the go ahead. Wondering if I could get a better view of the match, I decided to try and tune my Chakra Echoes to focus on the soon to be dueling pair instead of everyone else.

Amazingly, it actually worked. By the time Genma said "begin" I had concentrated my chakra output to focus only on the arena. It was a pretty cool sight, like looking through a telescope. I saw them charge at each other as if I was still standing in the arena.

The fight itself was pretty intense. Fu kept trying to attack her opponent with tijutsu but Shino would only fight her for a short time then disengage again. It took me a few of these interactions before I was able to pick up the bugs he was leaving behind. By then it was pretty obvious that he was trying to drain her chakra like his previous opponent. Unfortunately for him, it takes a lot more than a couple bugs to drain a jinchuriki. I don't even think Fu noticed the bugs as they each ate as much chakra as they could before they each dropped dead.

For Shino's part he seemed to notice something was wrong and tried to change tactics. Instead of being stealthy about the bugs, he created a huge swarm of them and had them surround her. But this didn't work either because after seeing a bunch of their bretheren die, the insects didn't want anything to do with her. They would get within a foot and pretty much refuse to get any closer.

Shino began to seem frustrated, though whether it was from the misbehaving bugs or the fact that Fu was teasing him I'll never know. With my hearing I could just pick up the fact that, for some reason, she was singing something along the lines of "I'm the bug man, kuku kacho!" repeatedly.

"**Nanabi put her up to it." **Kyubi told me, answering my question before I could ask it. **"After all, it's not something she would know about on her own."**

I was just about to ask why when I saw a bright, red flash as a pair of equally red insect wings sprouted from her back. A second later Fu launched her at her enemy at an almost impossible speed. I barely noticed the fact that she finished the fight a few moments after that with a series of quick punches. When Shino fell, her wings disappeared and the color faded from view.

_What the hell was that?_ I asked Kyubi silently.

"**Interesting."**

_Mind telling me what is so 'interesting' about it?_

"**Your jutsu seems to be able to pick up chakra colors."**

_How the hell does it do that?_

"**How am I supposed to know, brat! I wasn't the one that invented it!"** he grumbled.

_Then why was some of her chakra red?_

"**That's the Nanabi's chakra."**

"Hey, did you see that?" Fu said, as she suddenly appeared behind me from my lack of attention.

"Um...yeah, it was really cool," I said as I fought the reaction to jump over the railing. "Nice wings, by the way."

"Wings? What wings?" Ino asked, while everyone else watched in confusion.

"Thanks? They give me a speed boost," Fu answered, before turning towards Ino. "And they're invisible."

After hearing that, everyone turned to me, making me nervous.

"What? I invented a new jutsu to use against Neji. I just decided to use it to watch the match." I explained. "Sometimes I can pick up on stuff better with it then if I watch normally."

"What type of jutsu? Is it awesome? Can you teach it to me?" Fu asked in a flurry of questions.

"It's like echo location with chakra waves. Yes, it's awesome. And no, I can't teach you. Ero-sannin thinks I'm the only one able to use them."

"And why is that?" Ino asked.

"Because I'm awesome."

"It's more likely that it's because you're an idiot," Ino said sarcastically.

"You know, I should be offended that you think of me like that, but I have an awesome justu and you don't, so I'm not."

"Next match, Uchiha Sasuke VS Suna no Gaara." the proctor stated, interrupting our conversation.

"Oh, a fight!" Fu exclaimed happily, leaning over the railing in her eagerness. "This one should be good."

"Better than mine?"

"Well, that red head out there has some pretty sweet control over sand but your teammate is still confident so who knows."

"You do realize that the only reason he is confident is that he didn't see the Gaara's last match."

"Neither did you."

"I heard what he did to the last guy that he fought."

"Yeah, tragic," she stated simply. "He was a pretty cool ninja too."

I nodded in agreement as the proctor announced the beginning of the fight. Sasuke charged at the sand shinobi unsuccessfully using tijutsu against him while Gaara block everything using his sand. In fact, as far as I could tell Gaara wasn't the one doing it at all, it looked more like the sand was moving on its own to keep the boy safe.

It didn't take too much longer to realize that maybe tijutsu wasn't the best option to fight this guy. Out of all those throws, only one of them even got close to making contact, this meaning that it didn't in the slightest. To everyone else it was a hit, but from what I saw with the echoes, Gaara had kept a thin, chakra coated layer of sand between him and the duck-butts fist. The Suna Shinobi didn't even feel a thing.

"Are you using those echoie thingings?" Fu whisper to me.

"Chakra Echoes," I corrected, trying not to accidentally lose focus on the match.

"Yeah that," she said. When I didn't respond she continued. "Mind telling me what's really going on? I feel like I'm missing something."

"I'm having a hard time focusing it on the fight as it is. Sauske won't stop jumping around."

"Please!" she pleaded, no doubt trying to use puppy dog eyes on me. Despite not being able to see her at the moment I decided to relent, more because I knew that she would continue till I did anyways and not wanting to play the game.

"Fine, but only when something important happens."

"You mean like that?" she asked, obviously pointing at something.

I had lost focus of the fight and, despite watching what was going on, I missed what had happened. Sasuke was now clinging to the empty side of the arena using his chakra and was going through a bunch of hand sighs while Gaara hid in a sphere of sand.

"I have a bad feeling about this," I stated as my sensei's Chidori suddenly appeared in my rivals hand.

Before I could realize what exactly was wrong, Sasuke charged at his opponent, the Chidori in his hand going right through Gaara's sphere. Within a few seconds there was a loud scream from it as red chakra started poring out of the hole and swirling around the sphere.

"Crap," I swore quietly. Fu turned towards me. "He's a jincuriki."

"Seriously?" She asked, I nodded. "Nanabi wants to know who?"

"**Can't she tell herself? It's the Ichibi." **The Kyubi wondered. I relayed the message and got a snort for a reply.

"Ototo one, huh? Shouldn't be too much of a problem for us."

"We're not fighting him, Sasuke is."

"Oh. Yeah," Fu replied, sounding significantly more worried than a moment before. "How long do you think he can last?"

They watched as Sauske struggled to get his hand out of the sphere only for a large arm to appear out of the sand and throw him across the arena.

"Not very long."

"Well, if Ichibi goes overboard, or most likely _when_ he goes overboard, we'll just jump down there and stop him."

"And how do we do that? We're genin."

"We're also have the power of two power bijuu at our disposal," she pointed out.

"We do? I only used it once and it took like ten minutes to convince him let me."

"Seriously? What can you do then?"

"Um, just clones and my eye jutsu. Oh and summoning toads."

"What were you doing over the last month?"

"Avoiding you," I answered flatly. She thought for a moment before nodding.

"So what do we do?"

Before I could answer the globe fell apart, revealing Gaara kneeling on the ground, holding his wound. The chakra slowed, almost disappearing completely. I tried to tell Fu what happened when I got distracted by pieces of white. In fact it looked like feathers falling across the entire arena. I stood there, unsure what was going on, why I could see these feathers yet nothing else around the arena, or why just watching was making me tired.

I was just starting to think that a nap was a good idea as the Kyuubi began to shout at him.

"**Damn idiot kit! That's a Genjutsu you moron!"**He shouted, as I ignored him. I just wanted to go to sleep. I heard him growl in annoyance. **"Fine, I'll do it myself."**

His chakra built for a moment before breaking through the genjutsu, waking me up with a start. I immediately restarted my jutsu and glanced around in surprise.

"What's going o-"

"**Quiet!"**

"But-"

"**This whole arena is full of enemy ninjas attacking any konoha nin that moves. Do you really want them to target you next?"**

"I could take them."

"**Just stay down! If the Nanabi has any sense she would have woken her warden as well," **he muttered as I glanced over at Fu who was snoring. The Kyuubi sighed. **"Of course that's too much to hope for. Go wake her up. We're going to need her if Ichibi looses it."**

"Ok, but, where is he?"

"**Still in the arena. Where else would he be?" **he answered. I looked over to find the area completely devoid of anyone, let alone the psychotic sandman. **"Damn it! Those siblings of his must have took off with him."**

"Sauske followed him, didn't he?"

"**I'd be amazed if he didn't," **Kyuubi said with a sigh. **"You better go save him."**

"On it," I said. I crawled over to Fu, taking a moment to remember how to break a genjutsu before actually doing so.

"Not the birds!" Fu woke up with a start.

She tried to shout more but I covered her mouth with one hand, while motioning for her to be quiet with the other. I was just filling her in on what was going on when Sakura crawled into view, Shikamaru and a small pug in a ninja bandanna right behind her.

"Naruto, time to- oh you're up," she whispered in surprise.

"We going after Sauske?" I asked.

"Yes. Kakashi told us to as a mission. Me, you, Shikamaru, and Kaka-sensei's summons Pakkun."

"Me too!" Fu exclaimed. I tried to shush her but she didn't listen.

"It's not you're mission," Sakura said, sounding annoyed.

"So? I'm coming."

"But-"

"You can't stop me."

"Fine," Sakura relented after a moment, still not sounding happy about the arrangement. "Let's just go already."


	27. Chapter 27

Hey everyone, first of all I have to say that you guys are awesome. Even though the last few chapters haven't exactly been on time, a lot of you still haven't given up on this story. Knowing you guys are waiting for the next chapter really pushes me to get writing. I know it doesn't seem like it when it takes two months for a chapter but it's true. So thanks a lot :)

I'm super sorry about he late update. I don't really have much of an excuse either other than a small case of writer's block. Fight scenes don't come naturally for me so I tend to take my time with them. Anyways, here's the next chapter. It's a little short and probably a bit rushed. I just finished the last part about ten minutes ago. I reread it once or twice and it looks pretty good. If I missed anything, I'll fix it at a later date. I'm planning on taking some time after this arc is over and doing a few revisions. Mostly just spelling and grammar but I can't promise I won't rework a few of the scenes that I'm not exactly happy with.

Anyways,

Hope you Enjoy,

Trouble 1  
~~~~~~~~

! ! ! !A FEW MINUTES LATER! ! ! !

"We're being followed," Pakkun stated, making Shikamaru groan as we ran through the trees.

"Of course we are," Shikamaru muttered to himself. "Why couldn't this have been easy?"

"Do you know how many?" Sakura asked.

"No," the pug replied. "But they don't smell friendly."

"Hold on," I called, pausing on a branch for a moment to focus on my ears. It was faint but I was just able to catch the sound of several footsteps coming from behind us. A split second later I took off again, catching up with my team in no time.

"There's nine of them, and from the sound of it, they're gaining on us," I stated, getting looks from everyone that wasn't Fu. I just saw Sakura open her mouth, probably to ask how I knew, when Fu interrupted her.

"So what do we do?" She asked. "I vote we turn around and bash their skulls in."

Fu slammed her fist into her palm, emphasizing her point, no doubt wearing an excited smirk.

"There are so many reasons why that's not an option, I don't even have time to explain them all," Shikamaru stated flatly, earning a huff from Fu.

"You're no fun," she muttered.

"Well we have to do something," Sakura said, coming up beside Shikamaru. "Even if they don't catch up to us, we're leading them straight to Sauske."

"And what a pity it would be if there was one less emo in the world," Fu said, causing Sakura to start giving off more killing intent then I thought she was capable of.

"Fu, now's not the time," I stated before Sakura could retaliate.

"I think our best option would be leaving someone behind as a decoy," Shikamaru said, bringing us back to the topic at hand. "A regular ambush won't work so we're going to need someone to stay behind and stall or the others."

"But wouldn't that be a suicide mission?" Sakura asked quietly.

"Most likely."

A strained silence followed while we processed this information. I don't know what the others were thinking but I had some pretty conflicting thoughts running through my head. On one hand, I really didn't want to die. I'd went through so much this last month in order to overcome my new disability and I didn't want it all to go to waste here.

On the other hand, I didn't want any of them to die either. As far as I was concerned, they were my friends, and I didn't want my friends to die if I could help it. After all, protecting those precious to you is what makes you strong.

I could hear the Kyubi chuckling lightly in my mind but didn't offer me any advice. Guess he was leaving the decision up to me. Fantastic.

"I'll do it," a voice said that wasn't my own. My head snapped around to find Fu with her hand raised. "I'm a pretty damn good distraction, if I do say so myself. That and I have several tricks up my sleeves that will probably get me out of there without actually dying."

"No," Shikamaru said, not even bothering to look at her as he spoke. "We need someone smart."

"You barely know me! You don't know how smart I am."

"You act like Naruto. That's a good enough indicator to me," he stated, ignoring my glair. He pulled himself to a stop on one of the branches, leading us to follow suit. "Guess it has to be me. After all my jutsu is the best fit for the job."

"Are you su-" Sakrua tried to ask.

"OK!" I exclaimed over her. "Go show them who's boss!"

"Yeah, knock those asses on their…well, asses!" Fu replied, just as enthusiastically as Shikamaru sighed.

"It's like having two of him," Shikamaru muttered before turning to head in the opposite direction.

"Alright! Let's go!" I shouted, darting forward. "Which way puppy dog?"

"It's Pakkun, and that way," he said, using his nose to point. A moment later we launched ourselves back into the trees, leaving Shikamaru behind.

After a minute or two I noticed a certain smell seemed to be getting more prominent as we went, the very unnerving smell of sand mixed with blood. There were other smells that were growing stronger too, like polished wood and that of a dry, desert like wind but they weren't as unsettling. I could also smell Sauske in the distance, who always insisted that he smelled of vengeance even though I know now it's just tomato plants, told me we were going in the right direction.

"So, are we following the sandy death trap or the tomato avenger?" I wondered. Pakkun looked back at me for a moment while Fu chuckled.

"Tomatoes," he answered, before turning back to his task.

"Cool," I nodded in approval. "How do you actually follow a sent? There's some sort of trick to it right? You're not just-"

"Naruto!" Sakura yelled.

"What? I was curious!"

"Save it for when we're NOT in the middle of a mission."

"Fine," I muttered with a huff.

"They've stopped moving," Pakkun informed us, making me a bit confused.

"Sauske and Gaara?"

"No, our pursuers. Seems Shikamaru was successful."

"Hell yeah! I knew that lazy ass was worth something!" Fu yelled before getting shushed by Sakura.

"Quiet!" She whispered furiously, turning around to look at Fu. "Do you want them to find us again? Because if you keep shouting they will."

No sooner had Sakura turned back around did Fu stick her tongue out at her. I shook my head at her but said nothing. A few minutes of silence later Pakkun spoke again.

"They've stopped," the pug stated simply.

"I thought they were already stopped?" I asked.

"No, Sauske," he answered, his tone exasperated.

"Don't get huffy with me, you're the one not using names!"

"There's also someone else following his trail."

"Who?" Sakura asked for us all.

"I don't know, but they're not human," the dog replied ominously. Feeling a little nervous for my emo teammate, I took a large sniff of the air, sorting out the smells I already recognized and looking for one that shouldn't belong there. I found one almost immediately.

"Whoever it is, smells like bugs," I replied, getting a glance from Fu.

"Well it's not me," she replied.

"A different type of bug."

"Oh," she said simply. "Are they an ally?"

"How am I supposed to know? It's not like I can smell the symbol on their headband."

"I'm pretty sure you shouldn't be able to smell people either," Sakura pointed out.

"Only if you don't have an awesome nose like mine," I said, getting a chuckle out of Fu and a sigh out of my teammate. "Anyways, they kinda smell familiar. Like I've met them before somewhere."

I landed on a branch, just noticing two ninjas facing each other as if they were ready to fight. One of which had what looked like cat ears on his head and the other the ends of a trench coat waiving in the breeze.

"Excuse me!" I called, getting their attention. "Did either of you happen to see a lost duckling smelling of tomato plants come through here?"

"Naruto!"

"Just keep going," the guy with the trench coat said quietly.

"Ok, thanks," I said with a grin as I took off again.

"Kuku kacho," I heard Fu whisper to him as we passed the trench coat shinobi, getting a small twitch in response.

"Did he seem familiar to anyone else?" I asked curiously.

"That was Shino!" Sakura shouted.

"Oooh," I said, drawing it out longer than necessary. "That's why the bugs."

! ! ! !SAME TIME! ! ! !

"I should have known it was you." The Sandaime stayed focused on his opponent, trying desperately to ignore the battle raging just outside the barrier. It's not like he would be able to help them from where he was, nor would they be able to help him. Therefore, Orochimaru needed his entire attention or else he feared he would be unsuccessful in eliminating the threat.

"Don't blame yourself, after all you're getting much too old for all of this," Orochimaru replied as he abandoned the Kazekage's robes to reveal his normal Sound clothes, bow and all. "You know, you could have avoided this long ago. If you had made me Hokage instead of that martyr Namikaze then you would still be enjoying your retirement."

"And let all of Konoha become your play toy? I think not," he said simply. He closed his eyes for a moment, locking away any sentimentality he had left for his student. "I would rather wear these robes for a hundred years and deal with a mountain of paperwork the size of the Hokage monument, then ever give them to you."

The Sandaime's eyes flashed open, determination burning in them as he threw aside his own Kage garb, revealing his battle uniform underneath.

They stared at each other for a while before leaping forward, each preparing their own attack. Sarutobi threw a shuriken before flashing through a bunch of hand signs. He didn't even need to say the name of the move as the single shuriken multiplied into hundreds, all aimed at Orochimaru.

But the snake sanin had already been prepared for this. Before the shuriken could find their mark, two coffins burst out of the shingles in front of him. There were multiple muffled thumps as the shuriken imbedded themselves in the soft wood.

A third one started sprouting from the roof as well, quite a bit slower than the other two. The jutsu he was using seemed to have trouble summoning it. This gave the Sarutobi plenty of time to send it back to where it had come from.

"Two out of three, not too bad," Orochimaru said to himself. "I wasn't sure that last one was going to work anyways. Dead Demon seals can be kinda finicky like that."

"Why are you doing this, anyways?" the Sandaime asked, making Orochimaru chuckle lightly at the question. The snake man stepped out from behind the coffins, choosing to stand proudly next to them.

"You mean other than personal vengeance?" he asked. When Sarutobi didn't answer he continued. "Well I guess you could say that I hate to be bored, and there's nothing more boring than watching a world that doesn't change. That and I couldn't let you keep all these young, promising specimens to yourself."

"They're called children, Orochimaru; they're living, breathing human beings."

"They're not children any longer, sensei. They're ninjas, a rank you gave them, by the way," Orochimaru stated as Sarutobi narrowed his eyes at him. "If you didn't want these children in danger then maybe you shouldn't have placed them in your army."

"Enough! I won't let any harm come to the younger generation! Not from you, or anyone else."

Orochimaru's grin widened as he laughed loudly, his voice echoing throughout the barrier. The Sandaime stared at him in bewilderment as the snake-like man finally calmed down, wiping tears of amusement from his eyes.

"Oh sensei, it's a little late for that."


	28. Chapter 28

Hey everyone, I'm back. I'm really getting tired of having to apologize for late chapters (as I'm sure you're tired of hearing them) but this time my excuse is perfectly valid, and quite annoying. My work schedule got screwed up big time and I had to work full shifts every day leading up till Memorial day. I ended up with about 6 hours of overtime, which is good for my bank account but bad for my fanfics. Therefore I spent all of last week writing this new chapter. It was a bit difficult for me but I made it through and I'm kinda proud of how it turned out.

Anyways, to summarize, I'm sorry the chapter's late. I'll try to do better for next chapter. And my job sucks.

Thanks to all you reviewers. You guys are the best. And thanks to all my regular viewers to, you're pretty awesome too. :)

And, as always, Hope you enjoy,

Trouble 1  
~~~~~~~~

_"Oh sensei, it's a little late for that."  
_ _ _ __

Sarutobi stared at him blankly for a moment. What had could his student have possibly done to those children that he wouldn't have known about? Had he ordered them to be targeted directly in order to snuff out Konoha's Will of Fire?

He dismissed the thought almost immediately. As warped as Orochimaru was, he didn't do anything unless it benefited him, and killing off a whole generation of young ninjas would give him nothing. After all, he liked hiring ninjas about this age, and he couldn't hire any of them if they were dead. The only thing Orochimaru would gain would be revenge but he would theoretically accomplish that by killing the Sandaime so it was useless.

Therefore, if he wasn't talking about the generation of genin then he had to be talking about one in particular. The only one out of the group that Sarutobi could think of was the young Uchiha his student's been eyeing.

"We've already taken care of that curse mark you left on Sauske's neck," Sarutobi replied, after a few moments of thought. This elicit another laugh from his student, thought the snake sanin was able to keep it under control this time.

"I don't know which is funnier," Orochimaru said, chuckling around his words, "the fact that you think that seal will hold or that you think I'm talking about him."

"Who else would you be talking about?" Sarutobi asked hesitantly.

"You don't know? I would think you'd have been the first to find out," Orochimaru stated, seemingly lost in thought. "Unless he knew you'd remove his ninja status. That's what happened, wasn't it? That kid was actually smart enough to figure that out before informing the world. Color me impressed."

"Who are you talking about?" The Sandaime demanded, a feeling of dread taking hold.

"You see, during my stroll in the Forest of Death, there was another genin that caught my attention. Dumb as a rock yet he was able to get the drop on me. Twice." The Sanin grinned, as if the memory amused him. "He's quite he interesting specimen, and I'd love to figure out what makes him tick. But he was in my way. The best solution to an unpredictable variable would be to get rid of it, but then I'd loose the chance to study it. Luckily I thought of a much better solution."

"What did you do?" Sarutobi's blood ran cold as he hoped his assumption was wrong.

"It didn't quite work as I planned, I'll admit," Orochimaru said, grinning at his mentor. "When I ordered Kabuto to take his sight, I had thought his disability would be a lot more obvious. All anyone would have to do was watch him flounder around the room and they'd notice something wrong. Then he'd be off the squad and out of my hair in a snap. But he was more stubborn than I had calculated.

"Now, he's taking things seriously, he's even created a new jutsu that I've never heard of before. From what I can tell it's quite similar to the byakugan, therefore making it quite valuable to me. Funny how the very thing I had done to weaken him, forced him to become even stronger. I can't wait for the chance to study him."

"Blind? You blinded one of my genin?!"

"Haven't you figured out who? I thought it would be obvious after all that."

"No, not him," Sarutobi whispered. "Not Naruto."

"Good guess. I suppose you still deserve the title the Professor."

Images of the blond child flashed through his mind once more, this time proving things he hadn't wanted to believe. Naruto's actions before the prelims, his difficulty fighting Kiba, Kakashi's sudden protective streak when it came to him, even Jiraya's odd training routine for the boy. All of these things grudgingly lined up with what Orochimaru was telling him.

"How could you do this to him?" the Sandaime asked, his voice rising again. "Hasn't he been through enough already? Why did you have to take away his sight as well?!"

"I already explained myself. I won't do so again." Orochimaru's amusement finally faded as he turned back to the matter at hand.

"You should worry less about him and more about yourself. After all," the sanin paused for a moment as the coffins opened, revealing the Shodaime and Nidaime standing inside, "three against one aren't very good odds."

! ! ! !SAME TIME! ! ! !

I sniffed the air with the frown. There were new smells that mingled with Sauske's and Gaara's, they were the scent of fresh blood and upturned dirt along with a faint hint of ozone.

"They've started fighting, haven't they?" I asked Pakkun. The small pug simply nodded. "Great. The Teme just couldn't wait two minutes."

"Apparently not," Fu replied, way too cheerfully. "We'll kick his ass for it later. You know, after we saved him and all."

"That's your answer for everything, isn't it?" Sakura asked, sounding very disapproving.

"No. Just most things." Fu chuckled lightly as Sakura huffed in annoyance.

"You don't even like Sauske, do you?"

"I barely know the guy," Fu replied. "But from what I've seen of him, no, not really."

"Then why are you even here?!" Sakura exclaimed, all her annoyance towards the other girl finally coming to a head.

"Because this is a hell of a lot better than sitting in an arena not being allowed to do anything," she said in a care free tone.

"That's a horrible reason to go save someone, especially Sauske!"

"I have other reason's as well, just none of them are because of an infatuation with the dramatic Emo."

"How dare you!"

Pakkun and I sighed in unison as the two continued to bicker back and forth, no doubt alerting the whole area that we were there.

"If they keep this up, Gaara will know we're coming before we ever get there," the small pug muttered. I nodded in agreement.

I was in the process of figuring out how to get the girls to quiet down without them turning on me when I noticed Pakkun's ears perk up. A moment later a faint, strange chirping reached my ears.

"Shut up," I exclaimed, no longer caring about their argument. Before either of them could complain, I continued. "Do you hear that?"

Both of them stopped speaking for a moment, spending the time to listen to their surroundings. The chirping was getting louder but I wasn't sure if they could hear it or not.

"You mean the chirping?" Fu asked after a few seconds. I nodded. "Yeah, I can hear it. Barely."

"What's wrong with chirping? We're in the forest. Forests have birds. Birds chirp." Sakura pointed out shortly.

"I hate birds," Fu muttered.

"What bird would bring attention to themselves with this many shinobi running through their woods, especially with at least one of them giving off a strong killing intent." Pakkun pointed out. "That's chidori."

"What the heck is a child oreo?" Fu questioned.

"Chidori is my sensei's lightning attack, the one that Sauske used in the exam." I explained, getting a small oh from her. "How many of those can he do?"

"His limit's two per day, but judging by the ozone smell, that would be his third," Pakkun answered, sounding a bit worried. It was about then that the chirping cut off abruptly followed by an unnerving laughter.

Pakkun and I shared a look before launching ourselves forward even faster, leaving the other two to catch up. There was no time left for petty arguments or explanations. We needed to get there, now.

A few moments later I could just make out two figures just ahead of us. One was definitely Sauske despite there being a slight, purple-ish aura to his figure. He was laying on a branch, struggling to get up, if I had to guess I'd have to say it was from chakra exhaustion.

The other was leaking so much red chakra that I was surprised that no one from the village noticed yet. His figure was kinda warped as well, not quite looking like everyone else did. His left arm was too big, his ear was kinda pointy, and he seemed to have a large tail attached to him. He had a feral grin spread so widely across his face that even my Chakra Echoes could pick it up.

Just then he lunged towards my teammate, his larger arm raised to strike. But before he could do so I gathered chakra in my legs and leaped forward, my raised fist soon connecting with the normal side of his face.

I skidded to a stop a little ways in front of Sauske, keeping my focus on Gaara as he tumbled to the ground with an angry yell. The younger jinchiriki stumbled to his feet a moment later as I heard my companions join me. Two sets of footsteps, a girl and a dog, landed a bit behind me, no doubt fussing over the fallen Uchiha, while the last settled to a stop by my side.

"Wow, he doesn't look happy," I heard Fu say with a small whistle of amazement.

"You can say that again," I muttered as the other boy's snarls reverberated through the trees.

"Wow, he doesn't look-" she cut off midsentence as Gaara attacked once again, making the pair of us dodge out of the way. He landed on our old branch with a hiss as we came to a halt a few feet away. "That was rude."

"That's what you get when you tell bad jokes while in combat," I told her.

"Admit it, you would have done the same thing."

"Focus Fu, we have a mission," I said, avoiding a response.

"Which is taking down this guy."

"No, it's to make sure he doesn't kill my jackass of a teammate."

"You mean that one?" She asked, pointing to the prone figure right behind Gaara. It was about then that all three of us realized that when we dodged out of the way, we accidentally left our comrade with a small dog and Sakura as his only defense.

I swore as the sand Jinchiriki decided to take advantage of this to finish what he started. Unable to get there fast enough, I could only watch as Gaara used his large arm to swat Sakura away like she was no more than an annoying bug. She was sent flying through the air into a tree, where she fell to the ground, most likely unconscious. He then turned his attention to my other teammate, bringing his arm down towards him.

I was barely quick enough to get him out of there before the large claw destroyed the branch he was sitting on. When Gaara realized what was happening, he tried to follow me, but was distracted when Fu's fist came out of nowhere, missing his face by a few centimeters.

Landing on the ground, I rushed over to where Sakura was laying. I placed two fingers on her throat to check her vitals and after finding a heartbeat and feeling her breathing, I dumped Sauske nearby for safe keeping.

"Stay," I told him. Not bothering to stick around for his complaints, I immediately jumped into the trees in order to join the fight once again.

When I got back, I took a short moment to watch Fu fight. She seemed to be handling herself quite well, all things considered. She was quick enough to dodge his attacks, and seemed to even be landing a few hits of her own. She had something surrounding her arms all the way up to her elbows that seemed to enhance her punches. Whatever it was seemed to be constantly moving and not very solid, making it very difficult for my chakra echoes to pick up.

"You know you can…help me at anytime!" Fu shouted as she dodged another attack, this time almost getting a haircut in the process.

"Oh, right!" I exclaimed. I jumped forward in order to join the her only to get stopped by the blond kunoichi, her fan held out in front of her threatening. I had noticed her hanging out near the edge of our self-appointed combat zone but didn't think she would be getting involved anytime soon.

"I won't let you team up on him," Temari said.

"Are you kidding me? The guy's insane!" I argued, already fed up with everything. "He's probably going to kill everyone in this area, including you, if we don't stop him!"

"Insane or not, he's still my brother." Temari raised her fan, sending a large gust of wind in my direction. I was dodged out of the way, it's gust shredding the tree that I had been standing in front of.

"Well, this is going to be fun," I muttered to myself.


	29. Chapter 29

Alright! I'm back! Not dead, and with a new chapter I'm using as peace offering. I had half of this written for quite a while but I got seriously stuck on the fight scenes. I swear if writer's block was a wall, mine would probably be comparable to the Great Wall of China. It was horrible. But I got through it! That's the important part.

I also recently finished a fic who's only purpose was to get me writing every day. Needless to say it was a success and a break like you all just experienced shouldn't happen again. *crossing fingers* I know I've said this before but I just did three months where I wrote every day so I'm pretty confident that I should be able to produce content on a consistent bases.

Anyways, I thank you for your patience, and, as always,

Hope you enjoy,

Trouble 1  
~~~~~~~~

! ! ! !A FEW MINUTES LATER! ! ! !

"I take it back, this isn't fun," I said as I barely dodged another one of her attacks. "Not one bit!"

I sent another round of clones at her, hoping that a few of them would actually make it close enough to land a hit, but that never happened. With a wave of her fan she dispelled them all before focusing back on me. I jumped out of the way as she brought down her fan once again, sending another bout of wind towards me, somehow catching my arm in the attack.

I skidded to a stop on a branch a few feet away, my hand gripping my wound instinctively. It was only a graze, not serious enough to warrant much attention. I glared at Temari as I ignored the smell of my own blood filling my nose. She didn't move while I wiped my hand clean and grabbed a pair of kunai.

I needed a new tactic, something she wouldn't see coming. Unfortunately, her planning skills were at a level higher than mine, after all she gave Shikamaru a run for his money in that area. She was a long range fighter who excelled in her field. The only way to beat her would be in a close corner fight where she wouldn't have room to use her fan. But there was no way of getting that close without her blowing me away.

I thought that I might be able to use my kunais to deflect her wind, hoping that would be enough to get close. It wasn't the best idea but I really didn't have many options at the moment. I tensed my muscles, getting ready to leap at her once again just as someone was knocked into me, almost sending me tumbling to the ground.

"Hey! Watch it!" Fu yelled right next to me.

"You ran into me!" I shouted, turning to find her already looking at me. Before I could continue she shoved me aside just in time for her to punch at the gust of wind aimed at my back.

I thought for sure she had been hit as leaves were flung off their trees obscuring my 'vision.' When they finally settled I found that I was wrong. In fact, the only damage she had taken was a few small cuts on said forearm and the disappearance of one of her arm jutsus.

"And there goes the rest of my water gauntlet! As if the sand wasn't bad enough!" she growled in annoyance. She threw the other off with the flick of her arm, the substance making a sound more like a mud splat then that of pure water. A moment later she went through a few hand seals making what I assumed was water come out of her bag and coat her arms once again.

"Go handle the sand man, will ya? His weird ground jutsu keeps muddying up my water jutsus. It's a horrible match. I'll do much better with little miss pig tail fail than against him."

"Pig tail fail!?" Temari exclaimed indignantly.

"You can't just change opponents mid-fight!" I yelled a moment later, getting back to my feet.

"Why not?" Fu asked, most likely with a large smile across her face. "We're ninjas, aren't we expected to do tricks like this? If not then we aren't very good ninjas, are we?"

I opened my mouth to argue but was interrupted when I had to dodge a large sand-covered claw aimed at me. I landed on a branch a few feet away, shooting a glair at my ally.

"Have fun!" She called back as she charged towards the now irate fan wielder.

"No promises," I muttered back before turning to face my new opponent. "I suppose you already got the memo about the partner change."

"I don't care who I fight, I'll kill both of you in the end!" he said back, his grin so wide that even my jutsu could pick it up. "Then they will join you."

He inclined his head in the direction of my wounded teammates, my eyes narrowed in response.

"Over my dead body," I growled back, tightening my grip on my kunais.

**"Kit, I think that's the plan regardless,"** the Kyubi answered slyly. I gave him the mental equivalent to a pointed glair before charging at the other jinchuriki.

_"I noticed,_" I replied shortly while attempting to dodge Gaara's over-size arm. I was doing pretty good at the moment but I knew I couldn't keep this up forever. _"Any suggestions?"_

The Kyuubi hummed in thought but otherwise stayed silent.

_"Anytime would be nice!" _ I demanded as the claw got a little too close for comfort. Gaara immediately took another swing at me that I blocked with my kunai, only to hear a faint clink come from the knife. Gadda love cheap craftsmanship.

**"Patience! I'm trying to decide if I'm going to answer or not."**

_"What! You've got to be kidding me! We don't have that much time!"_

**"Correction, ****_you _****don't have that much time. I have all the time in the world. And then some," **the fox answered. **"Normally I'd let you fight your own battles, after all you can't become stronger if I'm winning all your fights for you. But I think I'll make an exception today, after all this is my little brother we're talking about and he can be kind of a handful."**

_"You don't say!" _I shouted back as I threw my now useless kunais at my opponent only for his sand to absorb them before shooting them right back. I dodged out of the way just in time. The knives then collided into the tree behind me, shattering on contact. _"Remind me to find a new weapon smith when this is all over."_

**"Right now he's only about halfway transformed, therefore he still has some vulnerable points we can focus on," **he said, ignoring my last comment.** "Luckily he doesn't see you as a big enough threat to finish the change so we should probably work fast before he changes his mind."**

_"And? Where are they?!"_

**"I'm getting there! Hold your horses." **He hummed in thought as I dodged several sand projectiles aimed my way. **"There's one that would work and a few more that might work."**

_"Give me the one that will work."_

**"I don't like that one."**

**_"_**_Why the hell not!?"_

**"Because it's a very underhanded way of winning and we can do something a lot more fitting to our position."**

_"You mean your position, because I'm a low ranking ninja. I'll win any way I can that isn't out right cheating." _I landed on a branch for a moment only for Gaara to knock the tree down and forcing me into the air once again. _"So what's his damn weak spot!"_

**"Right below his tail," **He answered with a sigh of defeat.** "It's not a space that's normally targeted so he won't have that much of his armor there."**

_"You mean his butt?"_

**"Yes, you annoying twit! His butt!"**

_"Alright," _I said a sly grin spreading across my face. _"That's something I can work with."_

! ! ! !SAME TIME! ! ! !

"Alright! Let's get this show on the road," Fu said with a grin as she slammed a fist into her palm. The gauntlets splashed on impact only for the droplets to return to them only moments later. "The sooner I finish you off the sooner I can make sure Naru-chan doesn't get himself killed."

"I won't let you team up on my brother," Temari answered, tightening her grip on her fan.

"I'm not planning on giving you much of a choice," Fu answered with a smirk. "You'll be asleep in the dirt by the time I leave here."

"I doubt it!" Temari swung her fan once again, sending a large gust of wind straight at the mint haired girl, making Fu dodge quickly behind a tree.

"Is that all you can do?" she called over the roar of the wind. "Because I've seen academy students with a wider variety of moves then you."

The wind stopped then, leaving only silence in their little corner of the forest. Fu stood there for a moment, waiting for another round to start up once again. But after about half a minute of this quiet, she decided the blond was definitely up to something. She peaked around the other side of the tree, only to find the spot the kunochi had been occupying was now empty.

Fu didn't have the time to look for her though as she saw movement out of the corner of her eye accompanied by the sudden urge to duck. She did so just as Temari's fan buried itself into the tree right where her head had been a moment ago.

Still crouched low, Fu took advantage of it quickly as she shot out a leg, sweeping the blonds out from under her. Temari quickly recovered, landing firmly on her feet on a lower branch.

"Alright, I guess you're not a one trick pony after all," Fu said with a smirk as she straightened up. "Still not very impressed though."

"You will be when I'm done here." Temari's glair intensified as she placed her weapon behind her, opening the fan again.

Fu jumped higher up the tree as Temari swung her weapon, sending wind at her once again. She was forced to do this several times until a large explosion rang through the woods, followed closely by a loud animal-like scream. The scream sent chills down Fu's spine as Temari's eyes widened in fear. It didn't take much thought to guess who that had been from.

Fu was the first to recover and notice her opponent's inattention. Temari was still staring at where the sound originated when Fu leaped at her, a water covered fist sending the blond falling to the ground.

"Not impressed at all," Fu said, watching her land in the dirt before jumped down, intent on finishing the fight quickly.


	30. Chapter 30

Hey everyone! new chapter time! See? I told you I was doing better with updating consistently :) anyways, I just thought you'd like to know that I've pretty much given up following the story like I'm supposed to. Plot wise I'm going to follow it as close as I can remember, but I'm not going back to check on details and the like. So you're literally getting whatever I remember from when I last watched/read it (which is at least over a year) plus whatever my mind has conjured up. So it's getting kinda weird. You have been warned.

Anyways, hope you enjoy,

Trouble 1  
~~~~~~~~

! ! ! ! SAME TIME ! ! ! !

Gaara's enraged screams echoed throughout the area, making me cover my ears against the onslaught.

_"That didn't work like I thought it would," _I thought as I watched the ichibi's chakra swirl around the sand nin even faster. There was so much red chakra in the air that I could hardly make out the boy behind it.

**"What gave it away?!" **Kyubi exclaimed. **"Seriously! Which brain cell did you use to come up with that horrible excuse for a plan?! I'll kill it now just to keep you from ever again thinking a single, shitty exploding kunai would ever take down a biju!"**

_"You said it was his weak spot!"_

**"Not ****_that _****weak!"**

_"But I hurt him!" _I tried to explain as a large arm came out of the chakra cloud, forcing me to dodge out of the way.

**"Only about as much as it hurts a jounin to get punched in the face by an average academy student. All it did was piss him off. Which, may I remind you, is what we ****_didn't _****want to happen!"**

_"Alright, I screwed up. I get it!"_ I dodged again as he took another swipe at me. I got out of the way just before the tree I was standing on was torn to shreds. _"He wasn't able to do that before. And I think that's his other hand."_

**"He's completing his transformation,"** The Kyubi said gravely. **"He's finally decided to take you seriously."**

"Great," I muttered out loud, lowering my hands from my ears as the screams finally quieted down.

The chakra slowed down as it slowly disappeared into the sand being in front of me.

I gaped up at the beast once the transformation was done. He was huge, easily towering over the trees that surrounded it. The thing was mostly sand now, having long out grown being able to use its jinchuriki as a skeleton. With its change complete, it now took the appearance of a very menacing tanuki. For whatever reason it didn't want to be like its fluffy relative so it three stories and replaced its fur with spikes, which made sense I guess. I mean no byju would want to look cute and fluffy, and what could be cuter then a normal tanuki? So I guess he tried to make it scarier to save face or something like that.

**"Will you stop thinking of a fluffy ichibi and focus!" **the Kyubi shouted angrily.

_"But he'd be so cute!" _I answered, knowing better than to deny it at this point.

**"Question. Will he still be cute when he smashes your puny human body into a puddle of human goo ingrained into a tree?"**

_"Umm, probably not."_

**"Then pay attention and DODGE!" **I leaped out of the way as lob of sand launched itself at me.

_"Alright I know he couldn't do _that _before," _I told him as I landed on a nearby branch. _"What do I do now? I'm pretty sure I'm outclassed here."_

**"And he's just figuring this out," **the Kyubi muttered, probably to himself. At least that's what I used as an excuse to ignore it. **"Gaara's still in control, barely. Ichibi isn't strong enough to completely take over a host unless he's asleep. So as long as the insomniac doesn't decide to take an impromptu nap, we have a chance."**

_"So…what do I do?" _I asked, barely dodging another couple sand attacks. I was really hoping that Kyubi's plan involved attacking because I was really getting sick and tired of just dodging.

**"Keep him awake. Give me time to think of something," **Kyubi replied. **"That shouldn't be much of a problem for you. You're obnoxious enough to get the job done."**

_"You're so helpful,_" I replied sarcastically.

**"I'm the one doing all the hard work here!" **He exclaimed. **"So unless you can pull a miracle plan out of your orange-clad ass then I suggest you start doing what you do best, hoping around like a lunatic and make him question his life choices."**

_"Now that I can do,_" I said, letting my trickster's grin spread across my face.

"Hey sand man!" I shouted, getting his attention once again. I was forced to leap out of the path of another projectile soon after, attaching myself the bottom of a nearby branch before continuing. "What's your deal anyways? I mean I can tell you're a jinchuriki, it's kinda obvious from my prospective. But I know that's not the reason you're a blood obsessed psychopath."

"Mother wants your blood!" Gaara answered back, his voice switching between normal and menacingly double layered several times even in his few short words. It seemed to be coming from this odd lump on his head, kinda like a zit. But it was hard to tell since my chakra echoes had a hard time picking it up.

"Yeah, that. What's the deal with that? You can't seriously think ichibi is your mother, right? First of all, it's kinda impossible since he's male." I paused for a moment in order to dodge an angry claw aimed for my tree. After settling onto a less destroyed branch, I continued. "Second, from what I can tell, he's an asshole. Why would you want an ass like that as your mother?"

"Your blood will be a gift to her," he replied.

"Fine, don't answer me." I frowned at him angrily as I brought up my hands into my most familiar hand sign. "I'll just do this differently then."

I then proceeded to create whole army of clones, ignoring the annoyed growls coming from my tenant. I guess he didn't like my way of buying time but had told me to do what I do best, and clone spamming is definitely one of those things.

My miniature army charged at the sand monster as I joined the group. As I got closer I realized that the zit like bump on its head was actually Gaara's real body, sticking out of its forehead from the waste up.

_"Gaara's a zit,_" I told the Kyubi with an amused chuckle. I only got an exasperated sigh in response.

My opponent seemed annoyed as he swatted at my clones like they were no more than a group of annoying flies. While he was distracted with them, another group jumped up into the trees, launching barrage of shuriken at him while his back was turned. But no sooner had they let go of the throwing stars did the monster's tail lash out, knocking down the trees they were using as perches.

With so many clones dispersing at once, I hesitated a moment, trying to process the feedback of the fifty or so deaths hitting me. This was just enough time for Gaara to notice and catch me unawares.

A lump of sand knocked me out of the sky and into a tree. My breath was knocked out of me as I tumbled onto a branch a few feet below the point of impact. Before I realized what was going on sand swirled around me, beginning to spread across the rest of my body and pin my limbs in place.

"Mother will enjoy your blood," Garra said, a smile in his voice.

I struggled against my bonds but it didn't do any good. I tried to keep calm and figure a way out of this, but started to panic when his sand particles began covering my echo point, making everything disappear from sight. I should be used to this by now, not being able to see, but I usually have my other senses to cover for what my eyes couldn't pick up. But with the sand now covering me completely in a sort of cocoon, it made them completely useless. All I could feel was the gritty texture of his sand, all I could smell was the old blood that soaked the particles, all I could hear was his muffled laughter nearby. I had no way of knowing what was going on and it scared the snot out of me.

**"Pulse my chakra,"** the Kyubi called, startling me out of my panic.

_"But-"_

**"Just do it!" **I felt a bit of his chakra get released into mine, waiting to be used. So I did just that.

There was a bright flash of red that even my echoes could pick up, making the sand around me fall to the ground, lifeless. I knelt on the branch, panting as I tried to get my breath back. Even with such a little bit of byju chakra, my nails had still lengthened to a sharp tip, while my whisker marks felt as if they had grown once again. I had hoped that Gaara hadn't noticed this change, but judging by the angry growl that reverberated through the forest, he already had.

"Kyubi," he stated, his voice low and gravely. There was silence for a moment before he began to chuckle. The chuckle soon devolved into full out laughter which shook his entire large frame. "Of course. That explains everything."

The laughter soon faded away leaving a still amused Gaara looking at me with a feral grin on his face.

"We're going to have fun killing you."

"You're going to have to catch me first," I growled back, my voice almost matching his.

He sent several flying sand projectiles at me, obviously trying to catch me off guard. It probably would have worked if the fox didn't give me a flash tutorial on how to increase my speed with his chakra. So I took more of it, forcing it into my leg and got the hell out of there.

I had barely touched foot on a new branch before I was forced to move once again as he continued his attack.

_"Please say you've got a plan by now," _I pleaded as I launched myself to the other side of the new clearing, hoping he'd lose sight of me. _"Because if you don't I'm gonna go over there, fists flying."_

**"Impatient much?" **The Kyubi asked. I gave him the mental equivalent of a middle finger before dodging another attack. Apparently he didn't lose sight of me after all. **"Regardless, I think I've got one. But it's going to involve a crap tone of clones and a technique I had no intention of teaching you."**

_"Why not?"_

**"Despite the fact that this is the last thing you need to be worrying about right now, it's because I had no intention of teaching you anything. That and your chakra control sucks."**

_"It's not that bad!"_

**"Focus damn you!" **he shouted as I dodged a little too close to the takuni's swinging tail. **"Anyways, focus my chakra into your fingertips, or your nails if you can be that precise, which I doubt. My chakra will do the rest."**

I dodged quickly out of Gaara's sight before doing as the fox said. I watched in fascination as my nails seemed grow even longer, each one covered in bright red chakra making them even more dangerous.

_"I'm liking this technique,_" I said, a feral grin spreading across my face again. _"What's next?"_

**"What else? Spawn a crap ton of clones and abuse the hell out of that new technique."**

My grin widened almost impossibly as I used what was pretty close to my last bit of chakra to form another small army. Even though I couldn't make out their faces, I knew they were all matching my grin as they each formed red claws of their own. Before Gaara could even wonder what we were planning, we charged at him.

With each of us aiming for a different body part, we hoped we'd be able to overwhelm him so that at least a few of us could get through. After all, he couldn't focus on all of us at once, even though he tried. About half of us made it through, learning from the deceased clones exactly where he was focusing on and dodging appropriately. Then, we had the pleasure of sinking our shiny new claws into the sand monster's limbs. I personally gorged out a pretty big chunk of his shoulder, making sand fall lifelessly to the ground as I did.

Gaara screamed in rage, or pain. I wasn't quite sure if he could feel the damage we did to his sand but either way he seemed pretty pissed about it. He lashed out at us angrily, but most of us were able to dodge out of the way before we were hit. He was just following through with his strike as I quickly launched forward, taking another chunk out of his side while my remaining clones did the same.

_"Not that I'm complaining or anything, but why is the sand falling away when I attack it with your chakra?" _ I wondered, watching more sand tumble to the ground from where I just cut.

**"Basically my chakra is stronger than his so it overpowers his control he has on it. He'll gain control over it again pretty soon, but it at least cuts him down to size, for a time." **

As if on cue, the sand on the ground started slowly climbing back towards its master, teeny tendrils I could hardly make out climbing slowly up his legs as they tried to get back into place.

**"Hey, here's a thought. Why don't you attack him before he can control all that sand again!"**

_"Just so you know, I was already planning to do that." _I turned back around, using the Kyubi's chakra to launch myself quickly back in the other direction.

**"Sure you were."**

I didn't answer him as I proceeded to do several more passes, taking out sizable chunks each time, my clones doing the same. Unfortunately, though it porbably looked pretty impressive, I knew it wasn't doing very much damage over all. I mean, the guy is made of sand, what was I going to aim for that would actually hurt him enough to stop him?

**"Too bad there isn't some sort of zit looking human sticking out of his forehead that isn't made of sand," **the Kyubi answered sarcastically.

_"Gaara!"_

I charged at him once again, my target different than before. My remaining clones covered for me, almost all of them losing their lives as Gaara swatted them away. I swiped at the other jinchuriki, missing my intended target as he leaned out of the way. I used my other hand to try again before I had drifted too far, this time catching my claws against his cheek.

Gaara froze, a clump of sand falling off his cheek as the smell of fresh blood filled the air. I landed on a tree nearby, unsure of what was going on.

A hand came up to the wound, lightly touching his face before bringing it forward once again. He stood there for a moment as he seemed to stare at the blood on his hand. He began to shake.

"Blood," he murmured, barely loud enough for anyone except me to hear. "You struck blood."

"Well, yeah. Did you expect me to go easy on you?" I asked him, giving him a look in the process. "Hate to break it to you, but I don't go easy on people that threaten to kill my friends."

"You struck blood," he said a little louder. "My blood. I can see…my blood."

"You're going to be seeing a lot more of it by the time I'm –"

"MY BLOOD!" he screamed, making my eyes shoot wide in surprise.

**"This isn't good," **The Kyubi muttered. But before I could ask why, Gaara was yelling once again.

"I'm through playing with you," he snarled, his hands coming up to form a ram seal.

"Playing possum jutsu," he muttered before his body suddenly lunged forward, dangling limply from where he was still stuck.

There was a moment of silence as the fox and I held our breath. The sand creature started to shift, it's facial features starting to move in such a way that even my echoes could pick it up. And it looked, happy?

**"Oh yeah!" **It shouted, taking me by surprise. **"It's about time that little brat freed me! I've been wanting to kill you since I picked up your chakra a month ago. Well, come on 'akini', show me what you and that lame jinchuriki of yours can do. Come at me with all you got, it will be sweeter for me when I knock you back into the dirt!"**

_"I-is that…?"_

**"My brother? Yes, yes it is," **the Kyubi said with a sigh. **"Congratulations, now we really are fighting a byju."**


	31. Chapter 31

First off, new chapter yay!

Second...Review Response Time!

To my Guest from Chapter 30: Thank you! I'm glad to see you're enjoying it. :)

That's it. Nothing else to say.

Hope you enjoy,

Trouble 1  
~~~~~~~~

! ! ! ! SAME TIME! ! ! !

An ominous aura settled over the area, making Fu and Temari stop their fight mid-swing, both turning towards its source.

"H-he did it, he actually did it," Temari said, her eyes widening in fear.

"Idiot," Fu muttered, looking serious for the first time that afternoon. "And that's why no one likes us."

"What?" The sand kunochi turned towards her opponent in confusion. But instead of an answer, all the mint haired girl did was flick her water gauntlets away.

"Sorry, I can't play with you anymore," Fu said. Temari watched closely as she started to go through hand signs as she spoke. "Naru-chan needs my help taking care of your brother, especially since he apparently let out that oversize rodent he's been guarding. I really do wish we had some more ti-"

Fu was suddenly cut off as Temari swung her weapon, slamming it into the mint haired girl's stomach. She doubled over for a moment, giving the sand kunochi just enough time to swing again, this time catching her across the back.

Fu seemed to struggle to catch her breath as she knelt on the branch, her nails digging to the bark. Temari took a few steps, opening her fan all the way as she did so.

"I told you, I'm not letting you go after my brother, and I meant it!" She swung her weapon forward, releasing enough wind to launch the foreign nin across the woods and out of sight.

Temari let out a breath she didn't know she was holding. That had been a tough battle, she was only lucky to get out of it with the few cuts and bruises she had. But she knew it wasn't over. Her brothers were still fighting, she had to help them. She turned away, trying to decide whether she should go to help Gaara, or wait and make sure Kankuro was alright first.

She had just decided that it was probably safer to check on Kankuro when she felt a menacing chakra spike into existence. It was close, far too close for it to be Gaara's, and much more potent than anything she felt from the Ichibi.

Temari was frozen in fear, barely able to turn her head to see where it was coming from. Her eyes widened as she took in the sight of the Taki girl hovering in that exact location. She looked a lot more scraped up, with twigs and leaves stuck in her hair and clothing. But what Temari noticed more was the red chakra leaking out of her person, a good portion of it forming a pair of insect like wings attached to her back. The girl's eyes had changed as well, turning from an orange color to a bright red with slit pupils.

"And I told you, you wouldn't have a choice," Fu said, her voice rougher than before. "And _I _meant it."

Without another word, Fu pulled back her arm and delivered a strong punch to the sand nin's face, knocking her out cold.

! ! ! ! SAME TIME! ! ! !

_"This one is all your fault!" _Naruto yelled in his mind as he dodged around some sort of air technique._ "And why does it always have to be wind with these damn sand nin! I can't even see wind techniques!"_

**"They are from the land of Wind," **kyubi said simply, as if the boy wasn't fighting for his life. **"And I am not to blame for this."**

_"It was your dumb plan!"_

**"Well you obviously botched it."**

_"I did what you said!" he_ yelled, stopping for a moment on one of the few branches left in the area.

**"Apparently not well enough. Wind." **He jumped up without hesitation, missing Ichibi's technique by mere centimeters. **"Regardless of blame, we need to wake him up, and soon."**

_"You don't say!"_

**"Cut the sass, sarcasm doesn't suit you," **Kyubi stated, getting an annoyed huff in response. **"But don't worry, I've got a plan."**

Before the brat could respond, the fox showed it to him, not bothering to translate the raw thought process to words. The kit understood regardless, which was nothing short of a miracle as far as the Kyubi was concerned.

_"Wait, that's it!? That's seriously your plan."_

**"It will work."**

_"It's worse than the last one!" _He exclaimed, dodging another attack. _"I should just spawn some clones and charge him again. Or maybe try summoning Gamabunta, he'd probably help."_

**"You barely have enough chakra for my plan, let alone your tenth army spawn of the day. And do you really think a summons will be able to fight a byju? I know Ichibi only has one tail but he's not that much of a wimp."**

_"…are you sure?"_

**"Trust me, by the time I'm done, he won't even remember you exist."**

_"If I get in trouble for this, I'm blaming the entire thing on you," _he said after a moment. He landed on a branch, crossing his fingers again as he began mixing the kyubi's chakra with his own.

"Shadow clone jutsu!" he yelled, getting the Ichibi's attention. Smoke filled the area temporarly, hiding the kid from view. When it finally cleared, it wasn't Naruto standing there, but a tall, red haired man sporting fox ears and a tail.

"Hello little brother, miss me?" The Kyubi gave him a grin only a fox could give.

**"Kyubi," **Ichibi growled, eyes narrowing on the small figure before him. **"Why the hell are you so short? I want a proper fight damn it!"**

"Sorry but not all of us were sealed away by amateurs." The Kyubi shinned his nails against his top before examining them. "You should be lucky I was able to escape this much."

**"You're nothing but a flimsy, human clone!"**

"True, but you have to admit, I make quite the sexy human. Nanabi's form isn't too shabby either, for bug wielding psychopath that is."

**"She does this too?! Neither of you have any shame, do you? It's disgraceful! You're disgraceful!"**

"_We're _disgraceful? Have you looked in the mirror lately? You've been tormenting a child simply because he became your vessel," the Kyubi stated. The ichibi let out a roar, taking a swipe at the human shaped byju. Kyubi simply jumped out of the way, landing in the exact same spot, not even ruffled. "And when angry you lash out with violence. You truly are the lowest out of all nine of us, no matter which way you look at it."

**"You are not better than me, you bastard!"**

"My tails say otherwise," the Kyubi taunted.

He was forced to dodge another swipe of his brother's claws followed closely by a rather large wind technique. The wind ended up whipping his hair around, making quite a bit of it fall out of its tie. Once he landed again, he looked at the loose strands with a frown.

"Why did I even bother with long hair?" he muttered to himself before brushing it back behind his shoulders. "Anyways, where were we? Oh yeah, the spot where I have nine tails and there for am more superior to you in every way. How could I have forgotten?"

Kyubi sidestepped a lump of sand that was launched at his person, a bored look covering his face.

"Poor otato, you really can't control yourself when your angry, can you? It's sad really, considering that this problem is the exact reason why you will be losing today."

The Ichibi paused for a moment before letting out a barking laughter that shook the forest.

"You don't believe me?" The kyubi said, letting out a dramatic sigh before continuing. "A pity. Tell me, would you believe me if I told you exactly how it will happen?"

**"Oh please tell me how I'm going to lose to a shitty clone like yourself," **he answered, still laughing with amusement.

"It's simple really, your hatred of me has distracted you from a very important detail."

**"Which is?"**

The fox grinned again, pausing for effect.

"That it's not just me you're fighting."

The ichibi's chuckles cut off abruptly, his eyes widening as he remembered.

**"The orange brat!" **it yelled, spinning around to look for him.

Only a split second later, said kid launched forward, a red aura still surrounding him as he almost appeared next to the other jinchuriki. The ichibi swung an arm towards him as Naruto aimed a punch at the sleeping boy, intent on waking him up.

Naruto's fist made contact before the ichibi's did. Gaara's eyes popped open at the blow, the ichibi screaming in anger as he was dragged back into his seal. The sand beast started to fall apart, losing its form fairly quickly, but not quick enough to stop its swing.

Naruto ended up catching most of the blow with the side of his face, which forced his goggles off his face as it launched him into the air.

"Shit!" the kyubi cursed as he watched the boy fall.

It was quite clear he was unconscious, unlike the red head currently residing on top what now looked like a crumbling sand castle. He was just readying himself to try to catch the boy when a red streak of light shot towards him, colliding in midair. The Kyubi stared for a moment, as the streak stopped and finally took the form of a ruffled Fu struggling to stay in the air as she held Naruto around his torso.

"I've got yah!" she said through gritted teeth, even though her grip didn't look all that convincing.

The Kyubi had half a thought to grab them both, especially when the girl dropped several feet in the air, almost loosing Naruto in the process. The thing that stopped him from doing so was the thought that she could at least get him to the ground safely, that and Gaara was starting to fall himself.

Now, normally the kyubi couldn't care less whether his opponent fell to their death or not, in fact it would usually be preferable, but not today. So, with a sigh, the kyuubi leaped forward, catching the other redhead in midair then landing on a surviving tree opposite him.

"W-what…?" Gaara mumbled as he began jumping down towards the ground.

"Can't let you get knocked out, or dead, now can we? I put a lot of work into getting your tenant back in his seal."

He landed on the upturned dirt gracefully, dropping the exhausted boy onto the ground almost immediately. Only a moment later Fu and Naruto fell to the ground in an unorganized heap. A low moan escaped the pile as Fu was occupied letting out a string of curse words that the Kyubi was sure she got from her tenant.

"Hey kit, you alive?" The kyubi asked, straightening up to stand next to Gaara.

He watched the sand nin out of the corner of his eyes as he tried to get to his feet as well. Fortunately for the fox and his jichuriki, the other boy's limbs were too exhausted to even hold his own weight.

"No," Naruto muttered, not moving as Fu got untangled and plopped down next to him, her curses having dissolved into angry mutterings.

"Oh well, guess that would mean I'm free to do what I want then, huh?"

"Not in the mood," he said quietly, barely audible. "Tired. Everything hurts. Are we done?"

"That's not for me to decide," The kyubi answered before nudging the redhead at his feet to get his attention. "Hey kid, are you too done fighting yet? I'm pretty sure neither of you can stand at this point so I'd suggest just calling it. I mean, don't get me wrong, that boy's a stubborn mule. If you say it's still on, he will get up and continue where you two left off, but I'd rather not risk losing my jinchuriki to something stupid like chakra exhaustion."

"Why?" Gaara said after a moment as he watched Naruto in confusion.

"I told you, he a stubborn idiot and that's a really stupid way for an Uzumaki to go, let alone a jincuriki." The kyubi's answer was ignored.

"Why do you fight so hard?" Gaara asked again, making it clear that he was asking the blond.

"Because I have to," Naruto answered, his eyes opening ever so slightly. Fu had finally quieted down completely, taking to looking around the new clearing intently. "If I don't, my team will die."

"They don't care about you," Gaara pointed out bluntly as Fu struggled to her feet and limped away somewhere. Neither boys seemed to notice but the Kyubi kept a spare eye on her regardless. "Why do you care if they die if they don't care if you do?"

"They're important to me," Naruto answered, hiding a wince at the other boy's words. "I might not be all they have in the world, but they're all I have. And that's why I fight, because I'm too damn selfish to give them up. Why do you fight?"

"To kill," Gara said. Naruto didn't even blink at the answer, which was probably do more to exhaustion than lack of shock.

"Why do you kill?"

"To prove that I exist."

"Just like my pranks, huh?" Naruto smiled sadly. "You were ignored a lot as a child weren't you? Probably because of the byju. Me too. I took to pranking the village just to get the villagers to look at me. After all, they couldn't ignore my existence if I was dishonoring their beloved landmark. But I found a better way to show the world who I am so I don't need to do that anymore."

"The Porniculture parade."

"Yeah," Naruto said chuckling lightly. "That was for a different reason which is completely beside the point. My point is I don't need to make people hate me to force them to recognize me, hell I don't even really care what they think anymore. All I care about is protecting my precious people, because if I can do that, it means I do exist. After all, if I didn't then they could be dead."

"Precious people? I don't have any."

"Yeah you do, you have siblings, right?"

"They…do not like me."

"They're just scared of the byju. Trust me they like you plenty. I mean, they wouldn't have fought so hard to keep you safe if they hadn't." Naruto's eyes dropped shut yet again as Gaara looked to be deep in thought. "You should try protecting them next time. You might like the results better."


	32. Chapter 32

New chapter! Don't really have anything to say about it other than it's a little short.

Hope you enjoy,

Trouble1  
~~~~~~~~

! ! ! ! SAME TIME! ! ! !

We laid on the ground in silence for a while as Gaara thought through what I had said. Or I assumed that's what he was doing, my chakra echoes had failed about the same time I stopped using the Kyubi chakra so everything was kinda a mystery. But it was quiet so I figured he had to be deep in thought. Of course it didn't last forever because the damn fox had to go and interrupt it.

"So, is the fight done?" The Kyubi asked. "Because if not, then we should probably wrap it up pretty quick. There's a group of nin's only a few minutes away and if I'm caught out of my seal (even if I'm technically not) then there's going to be hell to pay."

"I concede," Gaara said after another pause.

"Thank Kami," the Kyubi muttered. "I'm heading back then. Hope you three can take care of yourselves for the small amount of time you're alone."

I didn't bother to reply as I heard him poof out of existence.

**"Oh wow, you really did use a lot of chakra. Good thing he conceded because if you kept going he probably would have killed you," **The Kyubi said simply.

"Shut up," I answered back.

"I didn't speak," Gaara responded after a tense moment.

"Fox."

"Oh." He was silent for a moment before speaking again. "He speaks to you as well?"

"Yup, and does his best to annoy me if I don't prank people."

"Shikaku shouts if I do not kill people."

"Guess the byjus are just a group of demanding pricks."

**"I'm insulted."**

"That's the point."

"Fox?"

"Yup."

There was silence between us for a while, which was only broken up by the sound of Fu shuffling around the clearing. Actually it sounded more like limping, which was probably why it was taking her so long to get back. I was faintly wondering what she was doing walking around if she was hurt when she plopped back down next to me, hiding a hiss of pain as she did.

"Fight's done?" Fu asked after a moment.

"Fight's done," I replied.

"Good," she said. She shifted somehow, but I couldn't decipher exactly how, so I didn't bother. "You know, you look kinda weird."

"I fought Gaara, what did you expect."

"No, it's not that. It's something else." She hummed in thought, which sounded a little fake but I couldn't tell at the moment. "Actually I think you're missing something."

I furrowed my brow in confusion, trying to think through what possibly could be missing. Unfortunately, I was so exhausted; I didn't notice until she blew across my face exactly what it was.

"My goggles," I said, my eyes opening in surprise. "I don't have them."

"They probably fell off during the fight." There was the sound of more movement as she spoke but I didn't pay much attention to it. "Too bad there wasn't someone that saw where it landed."

"I need my goggles," I told her, a hint of panic in my voice. "They're important. I need them."

There was a tense silence that followed, making me pause. This was not the response I was expecting from them. Alright, maybe Gaara, but Fu was loud and boisterous. She should have been telling me that I needed to keep track of my things better, or at least ask why it was so important. Instead she stayed quiet, barely even moving, which wasn't right. I had to be missing something, something so blatantly obvious that would cause both of them to become upset.

"Naruto," Fu said, her voice suddenly quiet and unsure. "I already have them. They're right here. In front of you."

My stomach dropped out as sat there for a moment. Now that I focused I could hear a faint rattling sound coming from right over my head, specifically right where I should be looking. Tentatively, I reached up, freezing when my shaky hand came in contact with the smooth plastic lenses.

"I-I knew that," I said, trying to sound confident. I went to grab the goggles only to feel them yanked out of my grasp before I could.

"No, you didn't see them." Fu shifted again, probably pulling my goggles closer to her. "Why didn't you see them? They were right in front of your face. No one could miss them."

"I…I…" My mind went blank as I tried to come up with a believable answer, but none came.

"You are blind," Gaara stated, leaving no room for discussion.

At that moment, I didn't know what to do. I knew I needed to convince them that they're conclusion was wrong, but I was so exhausted, there was no way I could come up with a convincing argument. I mean, even if I did, I wasn't even sure I'd be able to stay awake long enough to deliver it.

**"Just tell them,"** the Kyubi chimed in. **"I know you don't want anyone to know, but they're in the same boat you are. They'll understand your reasons better than anyone."**

_"We just got done fighting Gaara and you want me to trust him with the biggest secret I have?"_

**"You don't have much of a choice, Kit."**

I sighed audibly, too tired to fight any longer.

"Please don't tell," I whispered. I wasn't even sure they heard me but judging by the confused noises Fu was generating, they did. "If anyone finds out I can't be a ninja anymore. I-It's the only thing keeping me safe right now."

"The civilian law for shinobi," Gaara stated. I simply nodded.

"Will you keep it a secret?" I asked quietly.

"…I won't speak of it," he answered. I breathed a small sigh of relief before turning to Fu.

"Will you too?" I asked. I waited a few seconds, but started to get nervous when I didn't get a response. "Fu?"

"You're really blind?" She whispered, sounding as if she hopped I was simply pulling a prank on her.

"Yes, I am." It felt funny to admit it but I didn't really have the time to dwell on it now. "Will you keep it a secret?"

She was silent for a little while longer before I heard some rustling come from my side. Before I could ask what she was doing, I felt my goggles carefully slide back into place, covering my eyes once again. I didn't realize I had been nervous without them until they were covering my eyes once again, causing me to relax to the point of almost passing straight out.

"Of course," she answered as she fussed with my goggles. I smiled sleepily at her, knowing I couldn't fight the exhaustion any longer.

"Thank you," I murmured, my eyes drifting shut on their own accord.

I was almost asleep when I heard Fu whisper towards Gaara.

"If you breathe a word of this to anyone, you'll be lucky if Naruto gets to you first," she threatened in hushed tones.

"If anyone hears of it, it will not be from me."

I felt content as I finally gave in and fell asleep.

! ! ! !SAME TIME! ! ! !

Jiraya stood there and watched, unable to do anything as his sensei finished the fight with his old teammate. He knew deep down that there was nothing he could do to help; not only was the barrier impenetrable, but that technique was impossible to stop. Even now, he could almost see the Shinigami standing behind his sensei, if he didn't look right at it. But, despite all this, he still felt like he should be doing something to help him.

It didn't take long for the third to finish his technique, causing Orochimaru's arms to drop limply at his sides. The snake sanin looked furious as the third fell to the roof, but being unable to do anything he had his henchmen take down their barrier in order to escape.

The pink walls hadn't even disappeared completely before Jiraya was on the roof as well, kneeling beside his old sensei. Orochimaru gave Jiraya a look as if challenging him to try to come after him. Jiraya simply looked back towards the third, his sensei's life taking precedence over everything else.

He heard the five sound nin's leap off the roof just as a group of ANBU landed by Jiraya's side.

"Go after them," Jiraya told the ANBU. They shared a look among each other, unsure whether they should listen to him. "I'll watch over the hokage. You just go or they'll get away."

The obvious leader nodded before they shot off the roof after the other sanin and his entourage. Once they were gone, he turned his attention back towards the third.

"That was a really stupid thing to do, sensei," Jiraya told him as he examined the strange stomach wound.

"It was the…only thing I could do," The Hokage wheezed out.

"I can think of a few things that would have been better than this, or at least wouldn't have left you dying."

"When you're Hokage, you can make those decisions… that I never could."

"Oh no, I'm not taking your hat old man," Jiraya said, though without his usual dramatic flair.

"I know, I know," the third murmured, half to himself. "I have one last request for you, Jiraya."

"Anything sensei, within reason."

"You need to find Tsunade. The village will need her after I die."

"I doubt she would want the hat either," Jiraya stated, looking back towards the third's face. He looked troubled by something, and possibly guilty from it.

"Most likely not. But she may end up with it regardless," The third stated, staring out towards his village. "Though that's not the only reason…for you to find her. She can help Naruto."

"With what?" Jiraya inquired, though he already had a feeling what his sensei was going to say next.

"Don't play dumb with me. Not now," Sarutobi stated, turning back towards his student. "I'm sure you already know that Naruto's newly blind."

"Yes, I do."

"Orochimaru is responsible," the third said. Jiraya's eyes widened in shock, unable to speak for a moment. "He admitted it himself. Said Naruto was…getting in the way so he fixed it."

"I should have known," Jiraya hissed, turning away angrily. "I've been looking into who did this for almost a month now and found almost nothing. Only Orochimaru has been able to keep me so thoroughly in the dark."

Jiraya sighed, slumping his shoulder's in defeat.

"Tsunade can fix what he has broken, I'm sure of it," the third wheezed, his voice becoming more faint as he spoke.

"Then I'll take him with me. The kid has a gift for manipulating others, even though he's too naive to recognize it," Jiraya said, giving his sensei a smile. "If anyone can convince her to come back, it'll be him, not me."

"Good, that way, even if she doesn't come, she can still fix Naruto."

The third smiled sadly, his eyes drifting shut as he did.

"Take care of him, Jiraya," he said, his voice barely a whisper. "The boy's been through hell, and I fear that he's not out of the flames yet."

"Of course, Sensei,"

"I leave the matter of his heritage to you. When you feel he's ready, you may share it with him."

"As you wish."

"Thank you, Jiraya. I'm sorry I've left you to clean up after my mistakes."

"That's what students are for. You trained us to be better than you so we, in turn, could train our students to be better than us. That way, not only is the village always growing stronger, but when one does something wrong, there's someone strong enough to fix it."

"I can't tell if you're serious or just pulling my leg one last time." The hokage smirked faintly, making Jiraya chuckle.

"Can't it be both?"

"Both sound good."

They were both quiet for a while as they watched the chaos around town finally start to calm down. Jiraya, himself, didn't move for quite some time, forcing his eyes to stay on the distant horizon even as he heard his sensei's breath stop. He knew, right then, that the Hokage had passed, but he couldn't bring himself to look at the body. If he looked at it, then he'd be forced to accept that he was dead, which was something he didn't want to do just yet. All he wanted was to sit there and pretend his sensei was still watching the village with him.

And that's what he did.


End file.
